In the beginning of the first chapter of Christopher Paul
Curtis's young reader's novel Bud, Not Buddy, both the title
character, Bud, and his friend Jerry learn that they have to leave the
orphanage they call the Home because they are being placed in two temporary
foster-care homes. This will be Bud's third foster home and Jerry's first. Bud
is well accustomed to the feeling of wanting to cry each time
he must leave the Home for a new foster home; being accustomed, he can now hold
back the tears, but Jerry can't stop crying. As we continue to read, we begin
to understand exactly why the boys are crying.
While an orphanage may not be an ideal home, the boys like it better than
foster homes because they suffer many kinds of abuses in foster
homes. Bud tries to console Jerry by saying that the three girls he'll
be living with will treat him "like some kind of special pet or something."
Bud, on the hand, is expecting the 12-year-old boy he will soon be living with
to pick fights. As Bud continues his narration, he describes some of the abuses
he suffered in his first foster home at the age of six. In the second chapter,
he further describes in detail the abuses he suffers in his new home, under the
Amoses, especially 12-year-old Todd Amos hitting him.
Hence, as we can see, all in all, Bud thinks very badly of foster
homes and has many reasons to think ill of them.
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