The Sharpshooter Award
Palmer’s father won the Sharpshooter Award on Pigeon Day, 1989. The members of the Beans Boys find this award endlessly fascinating and look upon Palmer’s dad as a heroic destroyer of pigeons. This view of killing pigeons contrasts sharply with Palmer’s own desire not to be a wringer and thus become the prime symbol of his inner conflict and emotional turmoil.
The Farquar Treatment
Farquar is the town’s biggest, rottenest bully, kind of their version of Scut Farkus except the other kids think he’s cool because of his reputation as a legendary wringer. He takes it upon himself to deliver a punch for every year of life to each kid on their tenth birthday. Most simply avoid him to get out of it, but Palmer willingly submits because to submit to the Farquar Treatment is a symbol of honor and respect and toughness.
Snots
Snots is the indelicate nickname by which Palmer is known among the young boys his mother calls “hoodlums.” Beans gives him the nickname and it is a sign of acceptance—along with the Treatment—into the Beans Boys club. The fact that the nickname is insulting symbolizes the desperation that Palmer feels toward wanting to fit in and be accepted. When he later cries out assertively, “I’m not Snots! My name is Palmer!” it is declaration of independence from such a desperate need for acceptance by others.
Nipper
Nipper is the pigeon who arrives on the windowsill of Palmer’s bedroom one day and never leaves. The adoption and protection of the bird by Palmer becomes the symbol of his awakening to the fact that he has to make a decision about his deep-seated desire not to become a wringer. Nipper is the symbolic arrival of his revolution against the status quo and conforming to expectations.
Treestumping
Or, more precisely, Dorothy’s reaction to treestumping. The term refers to an act of bullying initiated by the Beans Boys in which they all stand firmly in place to obstruct Dorothy’s way, forcing her to walk around them. Palmer explains that she could easily enough have avoided bullying by taking shortcuts or dashing into a store or going into the house of a friend, but she never does. She simply lets the boys stand there while, not bothering to look at them, she goes around and on her way. Dorothy’s actions symbolize how rebellion need not be active engagement, but can exist simply as a refusal to what others expect.
