The American In The Backyard Scene Analysis

In the beginning of part three, Paul brings some of his friends from Tangerine to his house. Everything is going well until Erik and Arthur show up. They make a racist comment about the kids from Tangerine and they enjoy seeing how upset it makes them. Tino stands up to Erik and insults him back, but Erik punches him in the face. In that scene, Paul is in his backyard. Almost all of the backyard scenes have been negative. There haven’t been any good memories there that Erik hasn’t tainted. All the time Paul listens to Erik and Arthur “kicking a football into a net in the backyard.” Paul describes it as a “short violent sound” which shows how violent he knows Erik is, just like he saw when Erik punched Tino. Another negative backyard scene was when Paul had Joey come over in the beginning of part two. Erik and Arthur came and started mocking Joey and his dead brother. They made cruel comments about
When Erik punches Tino, Paul thinks he might have seen his dad, but Erik doesn’t get in trouble. Right after Mike Costello’s death, Paul hears Erik and Arthur laughing about it, but his mom is in the garage and “didn’t even notice.” In both the scene where Tino gets punched and where Joey is bullied, Paul doesn’t do anything. Throughout the past few scenes Paul has shown fearlessness, but his fear of Erik is too great. He believes Erik is capable of things as extreme as murder. Paul is so “paralyzed with fear” that he is unable to defend himself or his friends. He’s too afraid to tell anyone about Erik and who he really is. Overall Paul has had many bad memories in the backyard because of Erik. It is clear that home doesn’t feel like a safe place to Paul while Erik is there. Paul is still trying to overcome his fear of Erik, and maybe one day he will be able to go into his own backyard in