Could you imagine one of your siblings being banished from your family? In the fictional novel, Under the Bridge by Michael Harmon published in 2012, the main character and narrator Tate experiences this problem with his brother Indy. Tate’s family lives in Spokane, Washington Indy believes he never gets the respect his brother does from his parents. Indy is capable of being a well-rounded person as shown through his writing skills but denies to be that type of person. Because of this, Indy rebels and shows nothing but disrespect to his family. He begins to skip school and do drugs until his father had no choice but to kick him out of the house. This began the long conflict between him and his father, which Tate tries to solve. …show more content…
The setting of this story is probably during the early 21st century because Tate’s family owns several computers which before the 21st century were very expensive and not well developed. Tate as we already know lives in Spokane, Washington home to one of the most “biggest, deepest, craziest skate bowl” (5) he believes. The local skate park created a common interest for the children of Spokane. Tate describes his brother as being able to “skate it like he was born on the flip side of the deck” (5). Not only does the skate park have an effect on the teens of Spokane, but also has an effect on one’s character. For the first time in his life, Tate begins to use his fists whenever he finds injustice in this changing society. “The only reason you don’t have to fight is because everybody in this city knows your brother. You have an impenetrable shield of Tate armor around you,” said Indy and Tate’s friend piper. When one’s character begins to change their actions do as well. As described in the story, many of the teens do drugs. Once Indy was kicked out of the house he let the city of Spokane control him which caused him to become a drug dealer and cause many conflicts to come. When Indy becomes involved in dealing drugs, he finds it difficult to stop because of his position and relies on Tate to help him. Overall, the setting not only affects Tate and Indy, but the antagonist as