First Blog

Let's talk about the characters in this book. The characters presented in Whale Talk are really unique and diverse. I really liked the character of T.J. Jones for many different reasons. First, he's the main character and it was easy to see things from his perspective, especially since the book was written in first person, but mostly because he had a lot of different takes on the situations he was faced with. For example, with the whole Heidi situation. When he first went to Georgia's and she asked him to do role-playing, you saw and felt the shock he felt when she told him to say those horrible things about the dolls. And his reaction when he found out that Rich Marshall was Heidi's (step)dad was easy to relate to, because I'd expect a lot of people to react like that. Imagine how you'd feel if you're enemy was abusing a little girl who looks up to you and you'd feel exactly how T.J. felt. Second, I really liked the way he decided to form the swim team. After he saw Chris swimming, he decided to make the swim team. Chris' character has a really sad story and I was just really happy and like 'aww' when T.J. decided to make the swim team and he asked Chris to join first. I always felt really bad for Chris having to deal with Mike Barbour because he was wearing his brother's letterman jacket. That school cares way too much about those lettermen jackets. Anyways, back to T.J. Another reason why I liked his character so much was because he seemed really aware of his surroundings and I liked that he wasn't ashamed of who he was and that he was always trying to 'help out the little guy.' The scene at the end of the book with Kyle Couples was really interesting, but I was glad that T.J. went to go meet the guy who was basically his brother.

The swim team was great and at first I was a little weary. I thought the team wouldn't really converse with one another and they'd just go to practice then go home, etc, but I was really happy with the way Chris Crutcher decided to write it. All of the characters on the swim team have these different personalities and personal histories that helps you feel like you know them.
For starters, let's begin with Andy Mott. I absolutely loved this character. He's been through a lot, but I found him really funny. When Andy was younger, his mom would leave him alone with his her boyfriend. So, Andy's mom's boyfriend would just tie Andy up to a pipe under the sink and then would go off and do drugs with his friends. Well, eventually Andy developed gangrene and his leg had to be amputated. The swim team is the first group of people to know that Andy has a prosthetic leg. Also, Andy was molested by his mother's boyfriend, but he doesn't ever going into anymore detail than that. With everything Andy's been through, you would expect him to keep to himself and that's what he does. He has a cold, mean demeanor, but eventually, during the swim team's bus rides, we find that Andy isn't exactly what he seems. He talks about drugs, sex and other things that would probably freak a lot of people off, but I found him funny. His humor and care that he grows for his fellow swim team members really shows towards the end of the book and that was really fun to watch happen.

Another character I liked was Dan Hole. We don't see a whole bunch of him, but he was a pretty funny character, too. He's this total brainiac who can't go a sentence without sounding like a thesaurus. Which is hilarious because Icko, (the swim team's temporary coach and then assistant team manager/bus driver) makes him do ten push-ups every time Dan uses a word he doesn't know. The banter between the two can get pretty funny.

The last character I want to talk about is Chris Coughlin. I felt so bad for him when I first heard his story. We first see him when Mike Barbour, a jock who I would bet probably worships his lettermen jacket, is yelling at him for wearing his dead step-brother's lettermen jacket. Mike believes 'you can only wear the jacket if you've earned it.' Chris' step-brother was practically a legend at Cutter High and Mike gets really angry that he's wearing the jacket. From there, we find out that first of all, Chris was born addicted to crack. Second, his mother's boyfriend once wrapped his face in saranwrap to get him to stop crying, but instead ending up making him mentally impaired/retarded. I felt bad for Chris, but I was so happy when the swim team started up and the whole team just accepted Chris and became friends with him. A great scene in the book is when Chris' aunt comes to T.J.'s house to tell T.J. that Chris always talks really highly of him and that basically T.J. is Chris' hero. I really enjoyed the characters in this book because they were different from other books I've read and they weren't what I would've expected them to be.