"On a bitter November day in Washington, D.C., when everything felt metallic—when the sky was gray and the wind stung and the dry leaves were making death-rattle sounds in the alleys—thirteen-year-old Arthur Owens picked up a brick from the corner of a crumbling building and threw it at an old man’s head."
The opening paragraph of the book gets right to the stimulating event of the narrative. Everything that happens in the story radiates outward from this single ill-advised action by a young boy on a cold day in the nation's capital. The narrative track of the story will eventually answer the lingering questions instigated here such as why Arthur throws the brick, who the old man is, and what the connection is between them. A key component of this opening paragraph is its description of that day. Another question which may strike many readers is why it matters that the day this precipitating event took place is of such significance that the bulk of this quote is directed toward describing it so vividly. As it turns out, the old man is injured but things could have been far worse had the day not been worthy of such descriptive imagery.
“It was because of his hat, Your Honor.”
The judge that presides over the case against Owens is a typical early 1960s conservative law-and-order hardcase. He sits in judgement over Arthur not just as a member of the judicial system, but as a person viewing himself as imminently superior to a boy who is clearly, to the judge, just another juvenile delinquent. Using all the powers invested in him politically and genetically, the judge intimidates Arthur before pressing him to provide a reason or rationale for his act of violence. Arthur denies robbery as the motive. Arthur rejects the idea that it was a racially motivated hate crime. When Arthur finally does provide the reason behind his assault with a brick, it seems facetious. In fact, the explanation of how it comes to be that his victim's hat is what drove Arthur to throw that brick is an entirely sincere confession. That story behind why the hat prompts the assault sets the stage for the emotional arc of the relationship between perpetrator and victim.
ARTUR—PLEASE COLLECT
ST. JAMES LIST OF THE SEVEN MOST IMPORTANT THINGS
1. LIGHTBULBS
2. FOIL
3. MIRRORS
4. PIECES OF WOOD
5. GLASS BOTTLES
6. COFFEE CANS
7. CARDBOARD
Mr. Hampton, also known as the Junk Man, is the victim of Arthur's brick throwing. Instead of being sentenced to jail for his assault, the judge—at the intervening of Mr. Hampton—lightens the sentence considerably to 120 hours of community service. The community in this instance is specifically Mr. Hampton. Arthur must devote his hours in the service of the victim of his crime. The service that the Junk Man requires is for Arthur—whose name he misspells on this list—to collect the items on the list. Arthur has no idea what the items are for and the pure randomness. In his mind he has not just been sentenced to servicing the Junk Man, he has been sentenced to become a junk man. As it turns out, of course, the items actually are important to Mr. Hampton and actually do serve a greater service than arbitrary punishment.
