Blog 3

Finally that last thing that I have really evaluated is Chris' stupidity towards girls. So he was practicing for track, and he fell and cut up his elbow really bad. Well of course a huge scare formed there, it would be unnatural if there wasn't one. So Chris moves on to another girl who he really likes, and thinks she is amazing. Well she is not your average girl(excuse my French, but she was prissy) so she always comes into class late and apologizes to the teacher(get this she actually gets away with it), and takes her seat like nothings different. She looks down at her desk and jumps up shrieking. Chris knew his plan had worked, he thought she would fall for him because he placed on of his prized possessions on her desk(as an I love you kind of gift). That is absolutely mental in my mind, but i guess I'm not a guy so maybe I wouldn't really understand all that well. So she is shrieking and the teacher comes over(you know Chris is gonna catch hell for this one.) And she makes him go throw it away, or he will be expelled from her class. He loved his dry, icky, rotten scab too much to throw it away, so he took it home and kept it on his head board. That is disgusting. I don't know what person in their right mind that would be flattered by that. That is absolutely repulsive. The main point that I am trying to make is that , over the past few days of reading my book I have noticed that a lot of guys act the way Chris used to when he was a young boy. Chris had a huge anger issue, and I know lots of boys/men who do too. I have also noticed that even though they probably don't want to admit it most boys are very insecure about themselves, especially around girls. They are just as self conscious as girls are around boys, it is really interesting to me. I had never really noticed that before until I started reading this book, and actually analyzing boys behaviors. In a way girls and boys aren't all that different mentally when it comes to relationships, and that kind of stuff. Yeah there are many different things to gender, but everyone is still at a very insecure, self conscious stage in their life. Chris really helped me realize that I shouldn't be too nervous around other because, they are probably just as nervous around me. I really enjoyed King Of The Mild Frontier, it was an absolutely phenomenal novel, and I can't wait to read another Chris Crutcher novel.

Blog 2

Sometimes I just don’t understand this Chris Crutcher guy. First he is talking about how tough he is and all the anger he is showing to people; yet, now he is talking about him being a crybaby “bawlbaby.” He talks about how when he wants something he’ll cry for it such as a cookie, or when someone is getting to take a turn riding in his father’s gas truck. He talks about how his father got into the gas business with a man named Glen. Glen and his father would always take him and his siblings with him everywhere or for a ride so to speak. In a way Chris’ father got a new dad, and Glen got a new son. Chris says that he hardly ever saw his father outside a dirty bodysuit while they lived in the “little house.” Back to the point though, he is talking of the experience when he was riding with his father and Glen, and his sibling would either trick him out of getting to drive or when he would just be envious that he wasn’t driving the vehicle. I think that in a large way he is being contradictory of himself. I understand where he is coming from, believe me I used to be jealous of my sister all the time; however, I think he is being a little over dramatic with the whole cookies, and driving of the vehicle. When I was little I used to go up north with my father and sister, and my dad would let my sister and I drive the pick up truck, of course he did the pedals but still what good fun! Now Chris is talking about his first date, and he is just really such a guy. So he loves this girl with a deep passion, always picking things up off the floor and giving them to her, even though he knows they are not hers. On top of that everyday he always goes home and talks about this girl to his brother, but never even making a move. Finally one night his brother had him in a head lock and was talking to him about how he needs to ask her to the dance before some other guy does. Chris knew that lots of guys liked her; however, none of them were even thinking of the winter formal this early in the game. Chris eventually gets up the courage to call her, but he didn’t want to dial the last number, so he had his older brother do it. So he went down to the basement and told his brother to dial the number; unfortunately, the first words the girl’s father heard from Chris’ mouth were you son of a B***h. The girl wasn’t home, but the father said he would have her call him when she came back from cheer practice. When she called him back he just asked her in a very uneasy voice he she would go to the winter formal with him. She of course said yes, but then Chris had bigger fish to fry. Just one day before he was going to go pick his date up, he got a huge zit right on the top of his forehead, Chris said it was like a hill on top of his head. Lucky for him one of the boys on the football team knew a man who could help him with all his zit problems. The man told him to heat a coke bottle, and freeze a wet towel. Then apply the coke bottle over the problem area and it should suck up the issue. Well it was working, except for the fact that the bottle was literally sucking Chris’ whole head into the bottle. He new it was time to pull the bottle off his head, and he had no more pain or embarrassment. When he went to look into the mirror to see how well it went, he was mortified at what he saw. His gigantic zit had gone away; however, now there was a giant hickey looking bruise on the middle of his forehead. His date didn’t mind the bruise, but she was thoroughly impressed with the unbelievable story he told about how he got it. He was never very lucky with girls after that.

Blog 1 Fireworks

So far in my novel King of the Mild Frontier Chris has gone over many of his past child experiences. He seemed to be a very troubled child, such as he would get angry quite a bit and lash out at people he did care about. I am not entirely sure what he would get mad about, but an example was that he had entered a quarter-mile race on his brand new Schwinn bike to impress an older girl; however, the previous few days it was nothing but rain, so you can imagine that it would be very hard to bike through all that muddy water, and sludge. He was biking as hard as he could in order to at least finish the race, but the MC was being no help, telling him that he was slow and needed to give up. Chris was determined to finish, and he was trying not to listen to the MC. Finally the MC kept saying “Chris Crutcher. Get off the bike. Push it on it. You are going slow enough to lose the next race.” Does he stop there no he kept saying in front of the whole audience “Chris raise your hand in the air if you can-“We have ignition. “I did raise my hand, middle finger jutting into the air, as I screamed, “Leave me alone, you big fat s**burger.” Well of course Chris wasn’t going to get away with saying that to not only the MC, but the entire crowd. His father had him under his arms faster than he could say that word again. Later that evening Chris sat in his room making as many possible words out of the one he had used earlier that day, of course Chris’ father could make any bad experience an educational one. That was one example of this anger that really just amazed me. Then he went on to talking about how his mother would tell stories from when he was a young lad and he used to have fits, and he would hit is head on the side of the bathtub(intentionally), his mother was so concerned about him that she would call a doctor and ask for advice. Every time the doctor would just say “Help him, just push his head a little harder than what he intended.” Mind you his mother would tell these stories while they were in company so the end of the story would always end in “And lo and behold… he stopped hitting his head against the side of the bathtub.” That would always make Chris more furious than before finally he just told his mom that “Your story isn’t about curing a kid’s temper. It’s about pissing him off for the rest of his life by rolling blocks under him and whacking his head against the bathtub instead of letting him have his tow-year-old rage. Stop telling it.” I thought that was really interesting that his mother just let him speak to her like that. If I said all those things to my mother she would probably spank me with a wooden spoon so that I wouldn’t be able to sit for a week. My grandma always told me that’s what happens to rude children, and believe you me, that falls under the category of being a rude child.