“school bus falling from the sky”
The dominant instance of specific descriptive imagery linking each chapter to the other is the recurrence of the phrase “school bus falling from the sky.” The phrase occurs in each chapter, but is presented within a different context each time. Sometimes it is as a metaphor and sometimes hinted at as a literal fact. It is sometimes spoke in dialogue while other times descriptive narration. The final chapter in the book links the literal to the metaphorical.
Looking Both Ways
The dominant conceptual imagery of the book, on the other hand, connects to its title. The literal idea imprinted here is the safety precaution of looking both for oncoming traffic between crossing a street; advice given to every child at a certain point in maturation. The imagery of looking both is pursued through the novel narratively. Certain conventional expectations of behavior or personality are set up at the beginning of chapters which then play out in such a way as to force the reader look at things differently by the end. The most obviously example is the chapter is the story of the group of little thieves known collectively as “the Low Cuts” whose opening presentation as potential juvenile delinquents and petty criminals must be looked at in a different way by the revelation of their true motivation as their story ends.
Friendship and Romance
Several of the chapters (each of which tells a different story focusing on different students) open with robust paragraphs steeped in imagery serving the dual purpose of introducing characters and situating the foundation of their ensuing story. All of these are memorable in their way, but that which commences “How a Boy Can Become a Grease Fire” really rises to the promise set by its title:
“Gregory Pitts’s friends love him so much that they told him the truth. And the truth was, he smelled dead. Like, rotten. It wasn’t that he was rotten, but just that he smelled like his body had mistaken its organs for garbage and that he was essentially a walking, talking trash can. And on this, of all days, that smell just wasn’t going to cut it. So in an act of service and sheer desperation, Remar Vaughn, Joey Santiago, and Candace Greene—Gregory’s crew—decide to help him out. Because today was a day of romance.”
Negative Numbers
In chapter five, a boy named Bryson muses “I guess negative numbers are still numbers” during a verbal confrontation with Remy who is being especially helpful in fanning the fires of rumor based on a lie involving Bryson’s friend Ty. It seems a strange thing to say to Remy even within context and the mystery of both its meaning and its origin is not revealed until the use of imagery in chapter eight. A precocious class clown who makes a habit of doing so with every lesson latches onto Mrs. Stevens’ subject of the moment, negative numbers.
“negative numbers deserve empathy because no one should ever feel lower than zero…wouldn’t you feel a little negative too, if people kept saying you less than nothing? You basically don’t even really exist. You under under. Your mama done probably kicked you out. Your girlfriend or boyfriend done broke up with you, and when you asked why, they just said something like, you ain’t enough for me. So tell me, who is crying for the negative number? Who, Mrs. Stevens? Whoooo?”
