"Listen, Victor said as they stopped in front of the trailer. "I never told you I was sorry for beating you up up that time. " "Oh, It was nothing. We were just kids and you were drunk." "Yeah, but I'm still sorry." "That's all right."
This moment is a prime example of the Victor and Thomas's relationship. It is salty and sweet. It's a love hate relationship. In this moment we see a view of Victor that we don't normally see in the movie. We see a sense of remorse and gratitude towards Thomas. It's interesting because Usually Victor gets annoyed of Thomas. I think there relationship gets deeper because they are visiting where Victors father died. He finds out that his father had died of a heart attack in Phoenix, Arizona. Later on in the short story we find that when they went to the trailer to the death place of Victors father, it still reeks of dead body. It must really be hard for Victor because he too had a salty sweet relationship with his father. He was trying to retreive old photos and other tangible objects. It was part of his past and even though Victor was abused and had alcoholic father he still wanted to have his past with him.
Arnonld was Victors real father. He was a father like figure to Thomas as well. Thomas never saw what Arnonld really acted like. I feel as if this has a huge effect on Victor and Thomas's relationship because in this quote you can see that Victor obviously treated Thomas bad sometimes out of resentment. He saw what his father was like; a sloppy drunk. Thomas never had to see what his father was like. Victor was jealous. He wasent just saying sorry for beating him up he was saying sorry for jealousy and his own emotions putting a gap in between there friendship.
Catherine,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you at the end when you say how "Victor obviously treated Thomas bad sometimes out of resentment". I bet when he apologized it was like the last puzzle piece to complete the puzzle. Maybe he also apologized for not being a true friend. He beat him up due to anger and Thomas let it go way before Victor did.
Xochilt
By the time they reached Arnold’s trailer, Victor had already developed the positive attitude towards Thomas. They had their differences in past but after the help given by Thomas, Victor realizes his mistake. Victor realizing his mistake and Thomas forgiving him for whatever Victor has done in past is the central ideas of the story. This conversation between Thomas and Victor was very simple and general yet it teaches us valuable lesson of life for forgiving and remorse.
ReplyDeleteI never thought that Victor could be treating Thomas like that out of resentment and jealousy that Thomas never had to see Victor's father as the abusive alcoholic that he was at home. Thank you for pointing that out. I think that it is very true that Victor could have been being mean to Thomas out of jealousy.
ReplyDeleteHello Catherine,
ReplyDeleteVictors dad was viewed in two different ways by Victor and Thomas. Thomas viewed him with a heroic like worship, because Victor's dad saved him. Thomas couldn't see any of the bad in Victors dad. Victor, on the other hand, had feelings of abandonment that surfaced into rage, which he of course took out on poor Thomas.
I appreciate your use of the term "salty and sweet" to describe the two boys relationship. It seemed onesided in the begining, but then came out even in the end.
Thanks, Carrie
It was interesting to me that in the story that Victor is the one who is now drunk. When in the movie he despised drinking because he thought that is what caused his dad to move away. I like how you use the term salty and sweet. We are able to see this in both the movie and the book. But what it made me think of is that you need both without it you don't have the relationship these two ended up having. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete