Essay Questions

Dave meets some people who are prejudiced against him because he is in foster care. What stereotypes do those prejudiced individuals have about "F-children", why does it make them reject Dave, and how does the rejection affect him?

There are many negative stereotypes about foster children in this book. According to the stereotype, "F-children" are rude, undisciplined, poorly socialized, disobedient, and possibly dangerous. They are suspected of being thieves, troublemakers, and bad influences on other children. There is even a rumor that children in foster care are there because they are so bad and undisciplined that their parents place them there voluntarily. So frequently adults do not allow their children to play with Dave, and some adults are suspicious of him. This sense of suspicion transfers to their children.

In reality, Dave (like most foster children) is in foster care to escape serious abuse and neglect at home. He means well, but does not always understand the unwritten rules of society simply because the environment in which he was raised was so abnormal. The people rejecting Dave have no way of knowing this, but by labeling him as "bad" they are repeating and reinforcing a false message given to him by his mother, which was that he somehow deserved to be abused because there was something wrong with him.

Near the end of the book, Dave watches a struggling bird and thinks that the bird's experience reminds him of his own struggles in foster care. What kind of literary element is being used? How does the bird represent Dave?

The bird, which is being picked on by other members of the flock, is struggling and having difficulty keeping up. Some of the stronger members of the flock take food from the bird instead of providing care or companionship. This is an allegory for Dave's experience in the foster care system. He is trying with all his might to "fly" and succeed in school and in life, but has setback after setback. Not all the people Dave meets are sympathetic and some of the "flock" members are hostile. But, like the bird, he eventually does get his figurative wings working and eventually takes to the sky to enjoy an independent adult life.

When describing his experiences and thoughts as a child, Dave tries to show the reader how he felt and what his reasoning and perspective was like. One of the ways he does this is by using the kind of language a child that age might use. Describe some literary techniques Dave uses to create "child-like" language and show how they affect the tone of the story.

Dave uses short sentences and avoids complex sentence structures when recounting his childhood experiences. This gives immediacy and clarity to his message. He uses simple words and speaks very literally, avoiding symbolic or picturesque language. He presents his experiences-- now-- as composed partly of his own thoughts, feelings, and beliefs and partly of things he saw, heard, or encountered. But he also shows how, for a young child, thoughts and feelings are a critical part of reality.

Sometimes Dave sometimes shares an impression or understanding that the reader objectively knows to be wrong. This reflects the less sophisticated life experience and world view he had as a child. He also frequently describes things he didn't understand at the time, without providing the reader with the background necessary to understand them. This puts the reader in the same situation as Dave.

After all Dave's mother did to him, why does he still feel love and loyalty toward her?

Part of Dave's loyalty to his mother is biological, and part of it is because he really does see the good in her. Her interactions with him were not constantly or uniformly abusive. He also believes that the abuse was his fault, because she told him so repeatedly. He believes he is a bad and unworthy boy, and he blames himself for breaking up the family by revealing the family secret and telling other people about the abuse. He misses his brothers, the youngest of whom was too little to imitate his mother's poor treatment of him.

The foster care system puts Dave in several different homes, but he is never placed with a family he gets to keep forever. Dave longs for the security and comfort of a family, and his mother and father represent his very first family. At times he idealizes them, thinking about the good times and wondering whether the bad times weren't possibly his fault or maybe even a figment of his imagination.