Characters

Raphael, Gardo and Rat all have same things in common, loyalty, intelligence and they trust each other to make the right decisions.  These characters are very similar because they all trust each other. They are different because not every one of them are as brave, or smart, or fast. They are all different in their own ways. I think I’m more like Jun-Jun, because if I have to depend on myself, I am able to and people underestimate me just like people underestimate him because he is small.

Empowerment

By the end of the novel, ‘Trash,” Rat states, “Jun – no longer Rat. My name is Jun-Jun” (p.217).  I believe he says this because he no longer thinks himself as a rat, he doesn’t think he is worthless or useless. Raphael and Gardo enable this by treating Jun-Jun with respect, and treating him like a friend. After the adventure Raphael, Gardo and Jun-Jun have, Jun-Jun realizes that he is needed and he is important. I believe that after this adventure Jun-Jun realized that not only Raphael and Gardo count himself as a friend but Father Julliard and Sister Olivia too, that is when he gained self-respect towards himself and decided that he isn’t going to be called Rat anymore, he is going to be called by his name, Jun-Jun.

This Story is About...

This story is about 3 boys on an adventure trying to solve a crime an innocent man was framed for, it is about trust because Raphael, Gardo and Rat have to depend and trust each other to not turn each other in or leave each other, this story is also about changes, changes happen when Raphael and Gardo found Jose Angelico’s bag and when Raphael got back from the prison; Rat, Raphael and Gardo had become more brave and also smart, courage is one main point in this book because it takes a lot of courage to go against the law, the police and the senator.

Climax

In the last section of the book, the boys tell the story together, Andy Mulligan makes this happen because it creates a more dramatic scene. The boys telling the story together gets the reader thinking, “Something important might happen, why else would they tell the story together?” The story is getting interesting because the 3 boys are all telling it together, the reader has been waiting and reading to find out what happens to them at the ending and by writing one entry by Raphael, Gardo and Jun-Jun, It tells the reader that it is the dramatic ending in which all the questions are answered. This makes the book more exciting and more fun to read.

Style

At the end of part 4, Andy Mulligan uses newspaper stories to reveal further information about Senator Zapanta and the mystery. The clue revealed in the first newspaper article is that the vice-president never denied that he stole money from the country, which creates suspicion. Evidence shows that the first newspaper article is no doubt bias to the government because it mentions Vice-President Zapanta’s reelection campaign where he looks like he is caring about dumpsite orphans.

All the articles do not share the same point of view. The first one is clearly bias to the government by only informing the reader the good things about Vice-president Zapanta. The other three articles aren’t scared to get their hands dirty, they inform the reader the truth about the corrupt Vice-president Zapanta. They inform the reader how the vice president used the dumpsite orphans for his campaign but didn’t pay them a single dime and they ask us how Zapanta had that much money in the first place, since it is a poor country.

This is an effective way to reveal the story because it makes the reader more hooked and the story more interesting. The articles help confirm that Zapanta is a very corrupt man. I think that these articles help the reader sit on the edge of their seats and continue on in the book with more information and more understanding of what’s happening

Family

In this story, family means everything. “Immediately there was a great commotion, and I saw how important it was that I was not taken,” This is when the police are taking Raphael from Behala. This shows that the people in Behala are family even if they’re not blood related they are as close as a real family. When someone is taken away or sick they are all sick or they feel helpless by not keeping the person or fighting for the person who was taken. The people in Behala have been through a lot together. For example, being judged by the wealthy, the police always thinking they’re guilty, working everyday with no rest just to get a meal for their family. So in this story family means everything. 

Multiple Perspectives

Throughout the novel, Raphael, Gardo, and Rat take turns recounting their story. Hearing the multiple perspectives of this story benefits the reader because then you will know what every character is thinking about and what they’re planning to do. It also benefits the reader because then you will know more about what’s happening. When the reader reads the book the different stories told by the characters help the reader understand every characters feelings instead of one main character, also not every character knows the full story like father Julliard and sister Olivia so their stories combined with Raphael’s, Gardo’s and Rats fits together and makes sense, If we didn’t have multiple characters telling the story and just had one main character telling the story we wouldn’t have known what happened in the prison with Sister Olivia, Gardo and Gabriel.