Pops By Victor Lavalle

In the story, Pops created by Victor LaValle, a young boy named Anthony is meeting with his father (Louis) for the first time. In the story, Anthony is sitting with his father having a slice of pizza sharing information about one another. He reveals his feelings towards his father, externally and internally. His interactions with his dad were interesting, there were many questions, a lot of staring and studying on another. Meeting his father was nerve-racking at first, he stated that “I’d laugh extra hard because I was too damn nervous” as the pizza man tried to joke with him. As their conversation grew deeper Anthony became comfortable with his father, he asked him multiple questions, he was fascinated with his father when he asked him his
We also received a few metaphorical remarks stated by Anthony. After Anthony criticized his father in his head calling him a broke ass Al Pacino he goes on to say “it was not the craziest thing to see this white guy sitting with a black kid and that being father and son, for instance, we could have been hugging.” This statement definitely had a meaning other than the one it was trying to portray. It meant that seeing a white father with a black son was not the craziest thing to see, but it still stood out to people but not as much it would if they were gay. Back in the time period they were in it was likely to see an African American with a Caucasian American, or being interracial wasn’t looked down on, but being gay was probably one of the craziest things to see back then. After Anthony says those remarks to himself he talks about the walls of the pizzeria. According to Anthony the walls of the pizzeria were admirable, he stated that “the walls of the pizza place were hard to hate, Dave Winfield was signed, framed and posing, swinging on a nail, next to him? Craig Nettle.” This statement metaphorically meant that Anthony was intrigued by seeing two phenomenal baseball players of different races are hanging up on a wall right next to each other in a white owned pizzeria. As the story went on Anthony refers to
I believe the moral of the story is that it never too late to fix your mistakes. In the story, you have a black child whose white father hasn’t been around in a while, the father is trying to catch up with his son. There were numerous of times where Louis talks about his mistakes to his son. Any question his son asked he was honest (from what we know) and answered them. He told his son about his mistakes in the past and how he better himself. He reminisces a lot about Anthony’s mother saying she was “the best looking black lady I ever saw.” He asks Anthony if his mom ever talks about him or if there are any pictures of him around. When Louis says these things about the mother of his child it gave me a feel of hope. I felt as though Louis was hoping Anthony said yes so, he can fix things with her. As I continued to read Louis and Anthony were done eating their pizza Louis asks Anthony if he wants to go home, he was happy when Anthony says no. When Anthony says no, Louis was happy, Anthony states that “his face was plain but he nodded extra-happy. Louis was overjoyed because his son liked him and wanted to hang out with him. He seems to try to fix things with his son by taking him for pizza and then he asking him if he wants to see a movie. Instead of going to the movies Louis buy them some beers and they sit and talk for a while. While they were drinking their beers, Louis asked if Anthony