Playworld

In the latter three chapters of Part 1, Griffin’s ongoing coming-of-age journey develops the novel’s themes of Navigating Challenges in a Fast-Paced Environment and the Influence of Adult Relationships on Adolescent Development. Much like Chapters 1 through 6, Chapters 7 through 9 of Part 1 move between a variety of narrative settings, each of which pressures Griffin’s character in unique ways. In Chapter 7, for example, Griffin’s account focuses on his experiences at Tanner Potts’s, Cliff Bauer’s, and Roy Alder’s houses. Because Tanner, Cliff, and Roy are all Griffin’s peers, his narration subtexually compares and contrasts their home lives with his own. When he’s at their houses, Griffin becomes “a fearless explorer” (134), venturing from room to room and privately cataloguing his friends’ family’s spaces and belongings. This pastime is a metaphor for Griffin’s emotional and psychological development and highlights his attempts to make sense of his interiority via external experiences. The images of him wending his way through his friends’ houses reify Griffin’s desire to understand himself and to navigate his life’s challenges logically. At the same time, these environmental shifts fracture Griffin’s developing sense of self. This is primarily because Griffin has yet to discover himself as a complete individual. Both because he is still a teenager and because of his acting career, Griffin’s character often changes according to where he is and with whom he is spending time. The malleability of his character is not a sign of weakness but rather shows that Griffin is actively questioning the world around him and searching for a defined sense of self.

The abuse that Griffin suffers at the hands of Coach Kepplemen shadows his coming-of-age journey and further complicates his relationships with adults, his sense of self, and his ability to discern what he wants and needs. Griffin’s internal monologues throughout these chapters provide insight into how Kepplemen’s sexual harassment and abuse are directly impacting Griffin. In particular, Griffin’s first-person narration employs the “double I” technique—this means that he is simultaneously inhabiting his adolescent and adult points of view. In some passages, Griffin will simply describe what he is experiencing as a teenager in the early 1980s, while in other passages, these descriptions gain a retrospective perspective, as if he is looking back at them from a future time. In such moments, Griffin will reflect on his childhood experiences from a temporal distance and thus infuse his memories with adult wisdom. Such moments particularly arise in the context of Griffin’s relationship with Kepplemen. For example, after Griffin, Tanner, Cliff, and Roy bully Simon, Griffin assumes a retrospective narrative stance to make sense of his own cruelty and its origin:

Our education was spatial. Racial. Tribal. Urban. American. But mostly—and this is the most important thing—it was dominated by Kepplemen, over whom we were each failing to gain leverage. And who wore the costume of love. And who was, day in and day out, teaching us fury, aggression, complicity, desperation, exploitation, and, most of all, silence (143).

Griffin’s removed and reflective tone illuminates the profoundly negative impact Kepplemen is having on him and his peers. While Kepplemen poses as the boys’ protector and guide, he is actively taking advantage of each of them, wielding his power using violence and fear. Because Griffin knows that Kepplemen will punish him if he doesn’t abide by his rules, instructions, and expectations, he actively harms himself by starving himself and meeting up with Kepplemen in private. He does so because Kepplemen is controlling him and has taught him that revealing the truth of his abuse will have greater repercussions than the abuse itself.

At the same time, the surrounding images of Griffin eating heartily (for example, the Christmas scene where he stuffs himself with French toast) evidence Griffin’s unspoken desperation for autonomy. He defies Kepplemen’s abuse and control by gorging himself because manipulating his body is his only way to assert himself. The same can be said of Griffin’s decision to tell Naomi about Kepplemen. When Naomi intercedes on Griffin’s behalf, he feels frustrated; Naomi thinks she’s doing what’s right and protecting Griffin, but she has failed to perceive the truth of Griffin’s distress as rooted in their own relationship as well. Her character parallels Kepplemen’s—she is also posing as a protective, loving figure but is exploiting Griffin. In these ways, Griffin remains the victim of the adults in his life, all of whom take advantage of his youth and innocence for their own gain. As a result, he is left alone to make sense of his increasingly complicated coming of age. He has no true archetypal guide and must rely on his own self-resolve to survive.