https://padlet.com/hkooner1_1/d9oltikqeaftu60m Jerome en-us 2021-02-15 03:45:51 UTC 2025-01-01 20:04:35 UTC hello@padlet.com hkooner1_1 https://padlet.com/hkooner1_1/d9oltikqeaftu60m/wish/1202250711 A character that I have found interesting and would like to analyze is Jerome, also known as Umar, and Jeronimo. As the book has progressed, it has become clear to me that Jerome is a very round and complex character that has great depth to him. He is a very realistic and relatable character and one who we learn a great deal of. We are first introduced to him as Umar, an adult striving to make it big in poetry. Through the use of a third-person omniscient point of view, the readers learn that Umar is battling problems that have severely affected his mental health. The readers quickly learn that Umar is at a low point in his life. This is evident when the narrator writes " Everything he had been through up till now, all the violence, the commotion, the love affairs, the sex, the disappointment, the successes, drained from him and left him empty" (Otten 15). The many events and occurrences that have occurred within his life, have mentally drained him and have severely affected his wellbeing. A mental battle that the readers clearly see Umar lose is when he feeds into Zaid's comments and smokes crack for the first time. At this point in time, Umar appears to be mentally weak as depicted in the statement "He knew all along he'd start smoking that shit, sooner or later" (22). Umar believed that this battle against smoking crack was a lost cause, one that he had already lost, which led to him giving in and smoking it. 

Moving on, it quickly becomes clear that Jerome is a protagonist. Through the use of a time jump to the past and into his childhood, Jerome's many problems growing up evokes empathy and pity within the reader. The biggest problem that he faced was his severe speech impediment and stutter. This is evident when the narrator states "...there were plenty words in his head. But as soon as he tried to get the words and sentences to come out...all that came out were strange, harsh noises" (42). I can somewhat relate to Jerome as I also have a speech impediment, although it is not as severe. Although it has gotten better as I have gotten older, some parts of it are still there. I have problems pronouncing words that have the letters "g, k, and c." The speech impediment didn't really affect me, but the teasing did. Similar to what I faced, Jerome's speech impediment is used to make fun of or belittle him. This is especially evident in his Grandma who thought he was dumb and his brother Larry who would call him a baby (38, 42). This has a negative impact on Jerome and his self-confidence. He feels as if he is not worth as much as other people who do not have his speech impediment. Furthermore, the fact that he becomes the sole breadwinner of his family as a result of a negligent father only makes his problems worse. One specific event that comes to mind is when Jerome witnesses his father break into his house and violently beat his mother (75-78). 

It is events like these that make Jerome a dynamic character, one who develops and changes throughout the story. Due to the fact that the story does not begin with Jerome's childhood, the readers already know that Jerome is successfully able to climb over and past his speech impediment. He changes from a lost child desperately wanting to find his voice, to a confident person who knows his voice. Furthermore, he changes from a wimpy child unable to defend himself or his mother, to a brave person that is able to stand his ground. This is clearly depicted when Jerome beats up Eric Webb, a shoe shiner who was attempting to steal Jerome's business in the Roxy (140-141).

Overall, I am very interested to see how Jerome continues to develop as the story progresses.

I have included a gif and image of what I believe Jerome looked like as a sad and depressed child.


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