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When Nath was 7 years old, his mother (Marylan) packed his bags and leavedhim, his father, and his sister. She goes away to finish college. However she doesn’t tell anyone why she is leaving and this affects everyone in the family. Naths father pulls away and seems to abandon his children (emotionally). This is important to the story because the mother disappears just like Lydia. However the mother returns when Lydia never does.

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The community pool had several important events. When he was young he went to the pool, and he got bullied by all the other kids while playing Marco Polo. This is when he first started hating Jack, despite initially feeling they could be friends.

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“‘When is Mom coming home?’ Nath asked every night”

(NG, Page 87)

This quote shows that Nath is a very stubborn and persistent character, and his mother going away affected him as a person.

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“Although Nath had not yet come to hate him (Jack), he already sensed that they would not be friends”

(NG, Page 88)

This quote gives us an understanding that Nath never really liked Jack and that he had already built a bias against him

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“Then Nath opened his eyes, and the glow vanished, He saw the other kids squatting around the pool, laughing now, the pool empty except for Jack in front of him”

(NG, Page 90)

This quote gives us the understanding that Nath is painting Jack into more of a villain than he is, showing that Jack is initially friendly to Nath

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Upstairs, nath shuts the door to his room and hesitates. What he wants is to find Jack—who, he is sure. Knows where Lydia is.”

(NG, Page 19)

This quote shows how he has inferred that jack has something to do with Lydia’s death. And how he is still persistent with finding out what happened to Lydia

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On the drive to the cemetery  May 12th 1977

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On the drive to the cemetery  May 12th 1977

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“The lake glints in the sun like a shiny tin roof, and Nath’s eyes begin to water. It seems inappropriate for the light to be so bright, for the sky to be so blue, and he’s relieved when a cloud drifts over the sun and the water turns from silver to gray” (NG, page 58).

This quote shows how he can’t comprehend things as beautiful after his sisters death because he is in a state of gloom. He changes as a character from being a normal kid to depressed and focusing on the smallest things and he can’t even admire the good.

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“He imagines grabbing Jack by the shirt collar to find out what he knows”. (NG, Page 61)

This shows Nath standing up and being bold, and really focusing on trying to expose Jack.

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“He’s never grabbed anyone before, and he feels tough doing it, like a detective in a movie. (NG, page 61)

This shows how tuff Nath has became and he’s drive to prove that Jack was the reason for Lydia being dead.

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Over the course of the book we see Nath as a character who is very persistent and focused on his goals. As we can see in our first quote, Nath asked his father when his mother would come back home every night. This shows how Nath never gave up on believing that his mother would come home. Another example of this is with Jack. Throughout the book we can see Nath’s hatred for Jack. He has had this hatred since they were little kids at the pool, and since then he hated him. Now that we see how Nath holds onto things for a long time, this shows us that Lydia’s death is nothing small to him

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The funeral has affected Nath as a person and contributed to the story. After his sister died, he begins to become depressed, and in this quote, he hates the beauty of the lake and wishes for it to be less perfect. This also leads him to rough up to Jack, because of how he believes he has led to his sisters death. It is important to the book by leading up to several important events and contributing to Nath’s character development.

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January 1959

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Nath may seem like all he cares about is the fact that Jack killed Lydia, and while this seems like it doesn’t go anywhere it actually contributes a lot to the story. Throughout the story Nath finds himself being persistent on one main goal: Prove that Jack killed Lydia. Nath’s persistence is unlike his other family members who all give up at some point. Nath gives the book a sense of urgency and sort of a mission that guides the reader deeper into the story once all the other characters are at their lowest.

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Why/how does Ng use third person omniscient POV to establish the Naths personality and significance to the story as a whole?

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Why/how does Ng use third person omniscient POV to establish the Naths personality and significance to the story as a whole?

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The narrator uses third person omniscient to show how Nathan has changed over time and the how he’s been through his lifetime. Since we have third person omniscient , we know more about the characters past and how it has affected him like the pool .  You can see his perspective  even when the narrator is talking about other characters. Through third person omniscient, we learn more about the importance of the event, and about the characters psst relatively more.

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Once Marilyn leaves, Nath fills the hole with learning about space, and yet he is still not given any attention about it.

At the pool, James almost forces Nath to go play with the other kids. He gaslights Nath by telling him that he specifically took Nath to the pool so he could swim and forces him into the water. After Nath is teased by the other kids, James has a chance to comfort and console him, but he decides to not do anything. This is a turning point for Nath because it turns him even more introverted.

We later learn that Nath couldn’t make the basketball team or the baseball team and that he preferred to just read and learn.

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This is Nath so destroyed because it sister is dead and he’s so to him he needs to figure out who the killer is. It’s driving him crazy.
“Nath roams the house like a caged beast, opening cupboards and shutting them, picking up one book after another, then tossing them down again.”

(NG, Pg. 106)