Chapters 1-3 introduce Gregory, his circumstances, and his central conflict. The dramatic structure of these chapters creates an engaging pattern in which Gregory begins at a low place and goes through a cycle of getting his hopes up and being disappointed yet again. First, he feels that his birthday is terrible because of the family’s move. The discovery that he is to have his own room raises his hopes, but Uncle Max’s arrival dashes them. Similarly, meeting his new teacher and classmates makes him optimistic about the upcoming school year and about making friends in his new neighborhood, but Vance’s reaction to his innocent remark about the school’s size throws Gregory’s optimistic vision into doubt.

Despite these constant reversals, Gregory is characterized as an optimistic, independent child who makes the best of difficult circumstances. This characterization supports the theme of Not Being Defined by Circumstances by showing that even though Gregory does not get celebrated on his birthday, is moved into yet another new house and new school, and finds that he must share a room with the problematic Uncle Max, he actively makes choices to focus on happiness and the possibility of a better future.

Gregory makes repeated choices that show this aspect of his personality. He feels that his drawing tablet is too small, but he does not complain. Instead, he simply makes the best of it. When Gregory escapes outside on the day Max arrives, he dwell on how unfair it is that Max is in his house. Instead, Gregory decides that the cold air feels good and is a reminder that spring is on its way. When he starts at his new school, he immediately decides that he likes his teacher and that he will make friends with other students easily—but even when this does not happen, he does not get angry or let it make him too upset. When Max is rude to him about the posters in their shared room, Gregory does not lash out. Rather, he goes to the abandoned chalk factory and looks up at the sky, deliberately seeking calm and peace.

Nevertheless, Gregory is also portrayed as a sensitive child who is easily hurt by Max’s careless treatment. Max is characterized as something of a bully in this section of the story. He refers to Gregory as “The Paintbox Kid” (15), which sounds to Gregory as if Max is mocking him for his art, the one thing he loves most. Max covers up Gregory’s paintings with his own car posters, symbolically crowding Gregory out of the bedroom that is supposedly Gregory’s first room of his own. Max’s choices undermine Gregory’s security that he is understood and cherished for who he really is. Gregory’s unhappiness at having Max in his home lays groundwork for the book’s theme of The Importance of the Authentic Self.

Gregory processes his deep feelings and expresses his real self through art. The exact repetition of the phrase that describes his art materials—“his tablet and paints and brushes” (6, 7, 11)—draws attention to how habitually Gregory carries around these materials and what importance they have in his life. Stressing their importance to Gregory early in the story also sets up the special notice he will take of Ivy when she is given an elaborate set of art materials. It also foreshadows the way that art will eventually change Gregory’s circumstances for the better.

The symbolic motif of sunflowers—introduced via the line drawings that adorn each chapter’s first page and explained through Gregory’s paintings in Chapter 2—supports the theme of The Transformative Power of Art. Gregory paints and puts a sunflower on the wall of his new room, which aligns him and his worldview with these flowers. Sunflowers thrive in adverse circumstances and turn hopefully toward the sun each day—like Gregory himself. Gregory’s central conflict centers on learning to thrive in a new set of difficult circumstances. The sunflower symbolism hints that he will be successful because of his essential nature.