I Go Along
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I Go Along
In the story “I Go Along” by Richard Peck the character of Gene is explored. When he goes on a class trip to see a poet, he interacts with Sharon Willis, which makes him start to change his attitude.
Genes character is set on his views, and how he sees people. In the start hes a follower; “everybody in the class puts up their hands. I mean everybody. I put up mine. I go along.” Gene wants to blend in with the crowd, however when the class is fooling around, he is really intrigued by the idea of a poetry reading. But by going on this class trip to see the poet, hed be marked a nerd by his classmates. Gene broke away from his class and got on the bus: “And at five-thirty I have no idea why Im sitting in the parking lot.” Gene is the only one from his class who is going to see the poet at work. When on the bus Gene tries to hide himself from the outside world, by crouching low and covering up his face.
While Gene is on the bus, he interacts with Sharon. Sharon shows Gene that you dont always have to follow the crowd, but you can be independent. When Sharons friends ask her to sit with them, she decides to sit with Gene: “Ill stay here with Gene,”and when they get to the bleachers, Sharon sticks by his side. Sharon believes that Gene has potential and that he can be somebody if he tried: “Youre as bright as anybody on this bus.” Perhaps he will take Sharons words to heart.
At the end of the story he pretends that things will go back to how he is comfortable; “Mrs. Tibetts is braking for the turnoff, and were about to get back to normal,” but, in the end he knows that his attitude has already change