Symbolism In Tangerine

Paul Fisher, the protagonist of Edward Bloor’s realistic fiction, Tangerine, shows his adventure of being legally blind yet seeing things others don't. The story uses the motif ( a theme in a story) of sight to show Paul’s growing understanding of his friends, family, and himself. One group of Paul's growing understanding is his friends. When first introduced to Victor, the captain of Tangerine Middle school's soccer team, Paul sees him as kind of a jerk, trash talking and getting up in people's business. “You? You think you can play on my team? Lake Windsor down is a joke man. We're gonna bust you up this year.” (Pg 106) With his way of trash talking to others he isn't trying to really “intimidate” them. It's almost more like a taunt, messing with the person and getting into their head. He gets them fired up which in a game of soccer could really make or break a game. However, by the end of the book Paul sees Victor as a brother that he never had. “If You're a War Eagle then you're a War Eagle. You've got …show more content…
In the beginning he sees himself as a freak. “ And Eclipse Boy, studied by the greatest doctors in Europe, but still a mystery to this day.” (Pg 77) He says these things about himself and he mostly believes them. Even when he was younger, his brother would even call him “Eclipse Boy”. He doesn't think of himself as anything more than “Paul Fisher, the boy who stared at a solar eclipse too long. In the end however, his personality changes drastically. He thinks of himself as brave (yet still modest) instead of a freak. He was even able to stand up to his older brother and tell police officers what Erik had done. “I've always been at the right place at the wrong time. I saw you kill Luis Cruz” (Pg 262) Throughout his time in Tangerine many traumatizing things have happened. The deaths of Mike Costello and Luiz Cruz really affected him. With that said all of these things have matured