Romi's Blog Response #2

In this second section of the novel (chapter 6-9) Farmer mainly uses characterization to help progress the story, as well as a bit of setting. We saw in the first section how she used setting changes to show how the characters change, and how their psychology works. For example when Rosa had locked Matt away for the 6 months, we saw how he changed from the happy, caring, and  naive little boy, to a quiet, depressed child. These changes in Matt's character also happen because of a change in the setting Matt goes from his cozy and safe home, to the vile dark and scary room. Obviously this change of scenery makes Matt change because he is not used to this treatment and area, he is scared of the unknown area that he is in.

  As the story progresses in this second section we see that Matt is scared from his experience with Rosa. We see how the experiences have traumatized and had a great toll on him. From seeing how Matt changes in his experiences I believe that Farmer demonstrates that Matt is definitely a dynamic character, and that he will change through the book just like in the first section.

We see that Most characters have foils in this book, for example Tom is a foil to Matt, and Rosa is a foil to Celia. Tom is a lot like Matt in terms of age, size, however in terms of how they act they are very different. Tom is a rude, spoiled, mean child, and Matt is a kind hearted caring little boy. The same is with Rosa and Celia, Rosa is a vile and hateful maid, and Celia is a motherly and caring mother figure to Matt.

Farmer also uses characterization when showing how the characters interact. For example we see that all of the other children don't like Matt and don't talk to him because he is a clone, except Maria who is Matts friend and tries to comfort him, this shows that Maria does not care what others think and does what she herself thinks is right. We see that Tom always hurts maria or torments her, and he is rude to Matt. I believe this is how Farmer shows that Tom is a ruthless, bully and is the opposite of Matt. "Tom Insisted on playing with Maria. He made her cry, but she always forgave him. He followed her to Celia's apartment in spite of- or perhaps because of- Matt's hostility. He seemed to like being where he wasn't wanted."  ""Its Nice here" Tom Said picking up Matts treasured teddy bear. "Catch Maria." He swung the bear viciously by one of its ragged ears and smacked her in the face. He tosses it on the floor" These quotation's shows how Tom is a mean character who doesn't care about his friends, or peoples property.