Social Issues

1. Corruption

1.1. "I bet he'd work faster than those illegals Doreen is always hiring." Page 18 Brice Milbury, (Tyler's Dad's Boss), says that maybe Tyler would be a better worker than ILLEGALS, that his wife hires. Which hiring Illegals is corrupt, especially since their not even supposed to be here, if they're illegal.

1.2. The situation in Omaha is uglier than I thought. The new regulations..." Page 14 Tyler's dad is trying to explain to his boss, that there is problems going on with the company, but his boss doesn't care, and he might even be apart of the corruption.

2. Safety

2.1. Half of the Milbury's Brothers Trust's board of directors were doctors." Page 19 Having doctors around in cases of emergencies is a very good advantage, especially in this part of the book, where Tyler and Bethany get injured with glass.

2.2. "My sister had to find a different ride to school or we were all going to wind up dead" Page 61 Tyler was making a small joke about Yoda driving him and his sister to school because his sister always distracted Yoda while he was driving. Which is a serious thing because sometimes when you're driving with a lot of people in your car, it can be a big distraction.

3. Segregation

3.1. "Yoda wasn't his real name, of course. Calvin Hodges was renamed Yoda after he flipped about Star Wars in fifth grade." Page 22 Yoda was segregated from everyone else in school because he liked to nerd out about Star Wars, when everyone else would nerd out about sports and things like that.

3.2. "Bethany was the Alpha Female of George Washington High - the most beautiful, the most popular, the queen bee." Page 7&8 Everything was based on looks and money worth when it came to your social ranking at high school.

4. Unemployment

4.1. "Maybe you should do some manual labor, Chip'...'There were no calluses on his palms." Page 13&14

4.2. "'That's why I'm asking you. Come on. I need the moral support. I have to get a job.' He needed a job because my sister was expensive." Having a girlfriend is sometimes really expensive, so being unemployed can be a major problem. That's why Yoda is now looking for job, now he's with Hannah.

5. Probation

5.1. "He nailed me with the bill for the damage i had done, which meant i had to sell my car and bust my hump at a landscaping company all summer." Page 1 Tyler, after he completed the foul deed, was sentenced to community service, with a few other probation terms.

5.2. "I spent the last Friday of summer vacation spreading hot, sticky tar across the roof of George Washington High." Page 1This is one of the main terms of Tyler's probation for the foul deed he completed.

6. Illiteracy

6.1. "I misspelled 'phenomenal' and 'testicle'." Page 10 Tyler, when he painted the school, made the dumb mistake of spelling his words wrong, but sometimes, if your illiterate, you can't your spelling.

6.2. "So Calc baffeled me within ten minutes." Page 50 Since Tyler had just passes 11th grade with grades decent enough to pass his classes, he doesn't feel like he can do these major skilled classes.

7. Crime

7.1. ",I used five cans of spray paint to decorate George Washington High..." Page 10 Because Tyler was always bullied and was never noticed, he did something to help himself get noticed. So he decided to do a crime, out of ALL things he could have done. He picks a crime.

7.2. "This guy is harassing Bethany." Page 137 Chip is telling a teacher that Tyler is harassing Bethany because Tyler is being rude by asking Bethany if she had "fun" last night throwing herself at guys (which is very rude and jerk like). This was very wrong of Tyler, which is why you shouldn't take harassment lightly because later on in the book, we actually find out that when Tyler is accused of the picture taking, one of the charges IS harassment.

8. Poverty

8.1. "The Milbury's house was what you'd expect: monstrously big and slightly tacky." Page 10 Since a lot of kids in Tyler's life, are wealthy, they all live in fancy houses, but some other kids live in places that are poverty stricken.

8.2. "Their front hall looked like a hotel lobby: white walls, gold-framed mirrors, a table with fake flowers stuck in a vase, and a giant staircase winding its way up to the second floor." Page 33 & 34 Tyler and his family don't have the perfect house, or even a beautiful home. Especially not compared to the Milbury's

9. Child Labor

9.1. "Dad yelled at me for being disrespectful. Then made me re-mow the law." Page 47 Tyler's dad, who I guess couldn't think of any really good punishments, always made Tyler re-mow the lawn.

9.2. "And Tyler? Mow that goddamn lawn." Page 99 Whenever Tyler's dad get's mad, or even slightly upset with his kids, he tells Hannah to go to her room, and for Tyler to always mow the lawn. Which is strange because he's gonna kill the lawn this way.

10. Alcoholism

10.1. "I mean, I'd been at parties, I had done a little drinking, but this was off the hook and i was off balance." Page 120 Tyler and Bethany are at a party, where alcohol is available, for underage kids. Which is a big problem, because of drinking and driving, and because rape can happen and even involuntary pictures can be taken. Which will all lead to lawsuits or jail time.

10.2. "He made a gin and tonic for mom,..." Tyler's mom get a lot of "migraines" sometimes from stress, or sometimes from over drinking. Which is a really bad thing, because it can lead to major problems in the future.