Character Clues

Character Analysis

Family Life

The protagonist and antagonist have both been shaped by tragedies at home: Bart's father was killed in a terrorist attack, while Tyro's little sister is in the hospital with something so serious it ultimately kills her. So yeah, family is key to characterization for these two.

It's also interesting to compare the boys' relationships with their mothers. Bart and his mom are super close; at one point, she tucks Bart "under her arm like a mother duck protecting her duckling" (13.39). In sharp contrast, Tyro's relationship with his mother seems strained. In their meeting with Dr. Bratton, Bart sees "Tyro's mom reach out to take his hand and Tyro pull it away" (9.21). Part of Bart's loneliness comes from the fact that his mom's the only person he's close to, and part of Tyro's rage may be rooted in dynamics at home.

Actions

According to Bart, all the kids at Baileywell fall into one of two categories: "the bullies and the bullied" (5.1). Fun times! Tyro, of course, is a bully, so he's really aggressive. He stuffs Bart in a locker and tortures him in all kinds of ways. Bart is one of the bullied, though, so for the first part of the novel he's very passive. Things happen to him—he gets tripped and prank called and worse—but over time, Bart begins to fight back. He vandalizes Tyro's car and even gets into a fistfight. Looks like the bullied is becoming the bully… or something like that, anyway.

Social Status

We understand a lot about the main characters by seeing where they are in their school's social ecosystem. At Baileywell, Bart is an outsider—because he's the new kid, yes, but also because he's a day student attending a school where most of the students board. His bully, Tyro, by contrast, is a "star" (5.4). As Bart says, "I should have been flattered that this school celebrity had chosen to torment little me" (5.4). Flattered he isn't, though, which seems fair enough.