Genre
Young adult
Setting and Context
The novel is set across the United States. However, it primarily takes place in gritty, run-down, and struggling communities.
Narrator and Point of View
The novel is narrated from a first-person perspective by three characters: Boobie, Curl, and Custis.
Tone and Mood
The novel's tone is dark, grim, and raw. The mood is tense, bleak, and desperate.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Custis, Curl, and Boobie are the novel's protagonists. The boys' unfortunate circumstances, past traumas, and difficult figures in their past are the antagonists of the novel.
Major Conflict
The main conflict revolves around the three boys' attempts to escape their pasts and find a place where they belong.
Climax
When the boys finally split apart because of their trauma and collective bad decisions.
Foreshadowing
Curl's decision to go to the house where he killed his parents and confront his past is foreshadowed by his early internal dialogue, in which he wrestles with his feelings about the incident.
Understatement
Each of the boy's naivete is understated throughout the novel.
Allusions
There are allusions to the culture of the time the novel was written (2003), various religions, and other novels.
Imagery
Frequently, the author uses vivid imagery to describe the oftentimes squalid environment that the boys live in.
Paradox
The boys desire nothing more than freedom; however, their desire causes them to be imprisoned.
Parallelism
Not applicable to this novel.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Chicago is used to refer to Chicago and its surrounding suburbs.
Personification
The drugs that Boobie's girlfriend becomes addicted to are personified throughout the novel.
