“Just remember, kid, you can quicker get back a million ...



“he wore a bright purple jacket and the lettering across the back of the jacket read THE ROYALS” This is the first thing the reader learns about Andy and this is how some of the characters only ever view Andy – not as a person but as a gang member. However, right after this, it describes how his name is “delicately” written on the front of the jacket “just over the heart”. This suggests his true character is more complicated and there is more to his identity than just being a gang member.“He lay on the sidewalk with the March rain drilling his jacket and drilling his body”The word choice of ‘drilling’ suggests that the rain is violently hitting his body, just like a drill might pound a wall. Not only has he been stabbed but even his environment seems to be trying to hurt him. This adds to his pain and also adds to the reader’s sympathy towards him.“He could hear the faint sound of music now, coming from a long, long way off.”The setting is used here to suggest how far he is from Laura and the party. The word choice of ‘faint’ along with the repetition of ‘long’ in helps to create this distance. His is completely isolated by the attack and soon he will be “a long, long way off’ in another way – because he is dead, so this is foreshadowing the tragic end to the story.“Shame on you. I gotta good mind to call a cop.”This is ironic as this is in fact what Andy wants – for someone to call the police. The drunk is the first of many characters who enter the alley and do not help Andy. The drunk does not see Andy for who he is – he mistakenly thinks he is also drunk – and this misunderstanding ultimately leads to Andy’s death. Both characters have in common the fact that they are dying: Andy from the stab wound, the drunk from alcohol abuse.“Someday he would marry Laura. Someday he would marry her, and they would have a lot of kids, and then they would get out of the neighbourhood.”The repetition of the word ‘marry’ emphasises how important this dream is for Andy. Laura represents escape from the life he is trapped in. She is his possibility of a happy ending but this desire is all the most tragic as the reader knows at this point (unlike Andy) that he is dying.“I don't know. I don't know. I don't want to get mixed up in this. He's a Royal.”The repetition suggests the intense confusion felt by Freddie at this moment. He wants to help Andy but fears that the Guardians will attack him if they find out he called a cop. Freddie does not see Andy as a person, instead he is just a gang member, a Royal.“Had they stabbed him, Andy, or had they only stabbed the jacket and the title and what good was the title if you were dying?”The jacket is a symbol for gang conflict and – as such – Andy is not a person, but merely a member of a particular gang. The repetition of the word ‘stabbing’ reminds us of the violence Andy has suffered. Here, he realises that pride he felt at belonging to the Royals is completely irrelevant now that he is dying.“I'm Andy, he screamed wordlessly, I'm Andy.”The repetition of his name (here and at other points) helps the reader to understand how important his identity is to him, especially when he is facing death. The word choice of ‘wordlessly’ hints that this struggle to be heard (and to be seen for who he really is) will not be successful. It is not possible to “scream wordlessly” and this oxymoron again hints at the futility of his situation.“She did not hear Andy grunt because she was a little deaf and because the rain was beating on the cans.”The woman is deaf to Andy’s cries for help, just like the rest of the world. Again, his environment is conspiring against him: the rain stops his grunt being heard. The word choice of ‘beating’ suggests show hard the rain was falling. The connotations of ‘beating’ are of a fight or someone hitting a drum. Both help the reader imagine how hard the rain is falling and how helpless Andy’s situation is.“The alley looked very long now. He could see people passing at the other end of it”The alley connects Andy to his past life and happiness and Laura. This is all very far away now and although he can see people at the end of it the word choice of ‘passing’ indicates that they – like the visitors to the alley – will not stop to help Andy."That's for you, Royal!"The member of the rival gang who stabds Andy does not single out him out for any other reason that he is a member of the Royals. His attacker, like nearly all of the other characters, sees Andy only in terms of the gang he is a member of.“Even in his pain, there had been some sort of pride in knowing he was a Royal. Now there was no pride at all.”The word choice of pride suggests extreme feelings of honour and happiness at belonging to the Royals. However, now that he is dying, he feels no pride at all. He realises that his death is worthless and he has died for something meaningless; this is emphasised by the short sentence.“He felt all at once as if he had never done anything, never seen anything, never been anywhere.”The list of things Andy has not yet done adds to the reader’s sympathy for him and helps to highlight the fact that he is too young to die. The repetition of ‘never’ emphasises the things he hasn’t done and will never do.“The jacket was as stupid meaningless thing that was robbing him of his life.”This is a shift in Andy’s views. He used to be a proud to be a Royal, and proud to wear the jacket. The word choice of ‘stupid’ and ‘meaningless’ emphasises how unimportant the jacket (and the gang) now is to Andy. The phrase “robbing him of life” at first seems metaphorical but is actually literally true. ‘Robbing’ implies theft, something taken without consent. This reveals his anger at the gang that has taken everything from him.“Pain ripped fire across his body whenever he moved. But he squirmed and fought and twisted”The metaphor “ripped fire” suggests just how painful taking off the jacket it is for Andy. ‘Ripping’ suggests something breaking that cannot be pit back together and ‘fire’ is a destructive force and can be very damaging. The word choice of ‘squirmed’ and ‘twisted’ describes how he had to contort his body to take off his jacket and ‘fought’ implies the immense battle he is undertaking.“she said, "His name is Andy." ”“he flipped to a blank page. “A Royal,” he said. Then he began writing.To Laura, he is person and she mourns his death. However, to the cop, he is just another statistic. The cop perhaps represents the government and his refusal to see Andy as a person shows how those in power lose sight of individual victims of gang conflict. “Then he begins writing,” hints he is about to create his own fictional version of events. ................
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