Chapter Twenty-one & Twenty-two

The twenty-first chapter is about Matt Donaghy. He is running errands for his mother. There he is attacked by about six senior students, who are also in the football team.

In a parking lot, Matt hears the guys calling him. They shout: “Hey, fag! (p. 137, l. 16)” and then also “Sue us? Fag, gonna sue us?”
They are extremely insulting Matt, because his family didn’t want to live like castaways. Almost the whole citizenry evaded the Donaghys. First, I wondered why no one can understand what the Donaghys did. Their whole life was destroyed. They won’t be able to live in Rocky River again like a normal family. They will always be the family with the “amok son”.
The people have to understand that, but unfortunately they are of the opinion like the gossiping girls of chapter 19. “It’s over now – the Donaghys should put it behind them. Forget and forgive. (p. 132, ll. 15-17)” But in real, they didn’t forget and forgive. They were afraid of Matt and the possibility that he could have planned an amok.

Of course I can also understand that they’re angry because of suing the school and its district, because I don’t thing that it’s their fault. If Mr. Parrish didn’t do anything and there would have been an amok, he had lost his job and his whole life, because he ignored the threat. On the contrary to the Brewers I think they deserve to be sued. They wanted Matt to have immense problems and now they must be in trouble.

As I see it, the citizenry should forgive Matt and his family, because they were driven into that situation. All this horrible stuff could have been avoided.