Tap Out by Eric Devine

Tony Antioch is a sixteen-year-old who lives in Pleasant Meadows, a trailer park that is anything but pleasant. His biggest dream in life is saving his mother from her stream of abusive boyfriends. Tony is convinced to join his friend Rob’s MMA class to learn how to defend himself against his mother’s boyfriend who has turned is anger onto Tony. However, the meth-dealing biker gang that runs Tony’s neighborhood is looking for recruits. Tony is going to need to learn more than fighting skills to find his way out of the cycle of poverty and violence that surrounds him.

Patterns & Perceptions:

• Is the main character portrayed as poor? Yes.
• What is the ethnicity of the focal poor? Caucasian
• Setting of poverty (urban, suburban, rural)? Rural
• Single-parent family portrayed as poor? Single-Parent
• Gender of focal poor? The main character is male, but both male and female are portrayed as poor.

Child or adult portrayed as focal poor? Both

Themes:

• Secrecy - N/A
• Family - Tony’s family is very disjointed. His mom is the only parent, if you can call her that. She is addicted to drugs and dates guys who beat up both her and Tony.
• Friendship - Tony is incredibly distrustful of people, but values the friendships he has with a few people.
• Embarrassment - Tony hates being poor. He is very embarrassed by it.

Bullying - Tony is bullied by both kids at school and adults. His mom’s boyfriend and other kids physically abuse him. He is made fun of on a daily basis because of his poverty