Where Are You? By Robert Cormier: Literary Analysis

The Great Depression is one of the hardest times that Americans had to face. Countless people lost their jobs. The poor suffered, while the rich thrived. In the story, ¨President Cleveland Where Are You?¨, by Robert Cormier, a boy named Jerry and his family lived during the Great Depression. As a hobby, he collected cards. He felt torn between making his family happy or keeping up with the card competition, which as a result, caused him to make a final decision. The family also faced many obstacles during the Great Depression. In the text, the narrator stated that, ¨After Christmas, a layoff at the shop had thrown my father out of work...the only income we had was from Armand’s after-school job at Blue and White Grocery Store- a job he finally lost…” Now the family had no more income coming into their home and family, which caused them to have less and less money. The problems which Jerry had faced caused him to learn to put family first and sacrifice his happiness so others can be happy.
When Jerry´s father´s birthday was coming up, him and his other siblings pitched in and bought their father a tie.
The story states,¨ ´Here´, I said carefully, pulling out a nickel. ´If we all give a nickel, we should have enough to buy him something nice.´” Then after a moment of remembering his beloved father, Jerry decided to give a bit more money. “ I took a dime from my pocket and handed it to Armand.” the main character donated fifteen cents for the present that his older brother, Armand, is going to buy. At the same time, Jerry was sacrificing his money for his
father.

Soon after, Armand, Jerryś older sibling, fell in love with a girl from the North side. The narrator stated that, ¨I avoided looking at Armandś new black shoes...¨ and ¨ ´Roger´ I said, ´I got a Grover Cleveland card up on the North Side...I sold it to Rollie Tremaine for five dollars¨ The main character sacrificed his card for five dollars so Armand can go to the dance with the girl. Armand also bought new shoes with the money. By selling his card, Jerry made his brother happy but he felt like he betrayed his friend.

By putting family first Jerry faced numerous problems that he didn't have before, such as placing his family over his own needs or putting his needs above them all . He clears things up with his friend, Roger, and waits for the good feeling to come to him for doing a good deed. Jerry puts family first which causes him to sacrifice many things.