In Bud, Not Buddy, how does Bud change throughout the story?

As a young orphan who's been moved around from one foster home to another during his short life, it's not surprising that Bud's personality is initially somewhat passive. Like all children in his situation, Bud is someone to whom things happen, not someone who makes things happen. He's pretty much all alone in the world, a powerless child whose welfare entirely depends on the kindness of strangers.

At a young age, Bud learns a number of strategies that help him get through life. These life lessons are based on the understanding that a young orphan in his position needs to adopt a posture of passivity and gratitude towards adults, even when they treat him abominably. This how Bud initially behaves while staying with the abusive Amos family, who treat him appallingly.

Yet over time, as Bud matures, he starts to stand up for himself. Sick and tired of the abuse he's encountered at the Amos residence, he leaves and vows never to return to the orphanage. It would appear that Bud has experienced something of a character change. Now he realizes that being passive is no longer a viable strategy; he needs to take his destiny into his own hands and be more independent and assertive. Put simply, he needs to stand up for himself.

As Bud grows more independent, he starts to become more active in the world. No longer buffeted this way and that by the winds of fate, he feels confident enough to head off to Michigan in search of Herman E. Caldwell, the man he believes to be his father. Thanks to his initiative and his change of attitude, Bud is able to take a giant step forward on the road to manhood—a road on which he's traveled some distance by the end of the story.

You have put your finger on a major theme of this story, which, after all, is a kind of coming of age story where we are presented with a narrator who, as an orphan, is left to himself to make his way in the world and find who he is. What is interesting is that he starts off the novel as a very street-wise orphan who has learned hard lessons from life already, in spite of his young age. Note the irony in Bud's repetition of "Here we go again" when he is told about a new foster home - Bud's fourth, and his prediction of the bullying he is going to receive from Todd Amos. It is clear that in a sense we are presented with a world weary and wise character who is old before his years.

Yet as the novel develops, the wisdom that Bud has gleaned from his experiences which he repeatedly quotes to us in the form of "Bud Caldwell's Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself." Yet at times the narrative shows how wrong his "Rules" actually are as they are based on distrusting others and find it hard to accept the kindness and charity of other characters in the novel, like his "pretend family" at the Mission who ensure he gets his breakfast and share their sugar with him, and also Lefty Lewis. Finally he finds his home and a family in the form of his grandfather and his band - and also he regains the ability to cry again.

It is important to remember the significance of Bud's name - as he remembers his mother explaining her reasoning for calling him "Bud" and not "Buddy":

"A bud is a flower-to-be. A flower-in-waiting. Waiting for just the right warmth and care to open up. It's a little fist of love waiting to unfold and be seen by the world. And that's you."

What is clear is that by the end of the novel Bud has found the place he needs to fulfil the promise in his name - he has found his home, giving him the security and love he needs to unfurl.

In Bud, Not Buddy, how does Bud's adaptability change after the night in the Amoses' shed?

Bud's brief stay at the Amos residence has had a profound effect on his character, and a positive one at that. Prior to his arrival at this grim, abusive home environment, Bud had always adopted a strategy of passivity, of just keeping his head down and being grateful to his alleged elders and betters, come what may.

But his whole attitude changes dramatically after his appalling experience at the Amoses'. The Amoses' son Todd is a thoroughly unpleasant young man, a bully who repeatedly subjects Bud to beatings.

The apple hasn't fallen very far from the tree, as it were, as Todd's parents are every bit as abusive. Mrs. Amos perversely accuses Bud of attacking her son, when of course, it's the other way round. And Mr. Amos appears to take his inspiration from any one of dozens of adult authority figures in the novels of Charles Dickens by locking poor Bud away in his shed.

It's now abundantly clear to Bud that his strategy hasn't worked; he needs to try a new tack. And he does. From now on, Bud will stand up for himself; he'll be more independent and self-assertive. Instead of letting other people tell him how to live his own life, he needs to take his destiny firmly into his own hands.

Although Bud's experience of life at the Amos residence was deeply unpleasant, it has at least forced him to become a different person. The once passive Bud will now head out into the world and chart his own course in life.

With the confidence this will bring him, in due course, he'll have the guts to take a trip to Michigan to see the famous bandleader Herman E. Caldwell, the man he believes to be his father. In making this journey, Bud will also be taking a big step on the road to manhood.

To say that Bud's experience with the Amos family didn't go well is a massive understatement. Bud woke up at one point to find that Todd was shoving a pencil up Bud's nose. The incident turned more violent from that point forward, and ended with Todd telling a massive lie to his mother about Bud and bed wetting:

Todd said, "I just tried to waken him to make sure he'd gone to the lavatory, Mother. I was just trying to help." He aimed his finger dead at me and said, "And Look at him, Mother, this one's got 'bed wetter' written all over him."

Bud can hardly get a word in, and he ends up being locked in the shed that belongs to the family. To Bud's credit, he doesn't panic. It's a scary situation that he finds himself in, but Bud copes with the new environment fairly well. He initially has some momentary panic that builds, but he effectively collects himself and begins to take in his surroundings:

I closed my eyes and thought real hard about making my breathing slow down. Pretty soon it sounded like the five other breathers in the shed had left. I was still scared but now it was that get-real excited-and-want-to-move- around kind of scared.

One of the things that Bud sees is what he thinks is a vampire bat. This is where Bud begins to react rather than think, and coping very much involves thinking. Coping means dealing with and overcoming problems and difficulties. Those might be emotional or situational, and people have varying degrees of success when trying to cope with difficulties, and experience matters as well. People learn to cope better based on previous coping successes and failures. Bud fails to understand the importance of the "bat" not moving or hurting him. He ultimately makes the wrong decision to antagonize the "bat" which turns out to be a nest of hornets.

As Bud is thrown into more new environments, he deals with and overcomes problems and difficulties in a way that reflects his learning from previous experiences. Bud is slower to react. We see this in how he stays calm in Hooverville and when he is told that the librarian he seeks isn't there anymore. Readers see this when he wakes up in Lefty's house and fakes like he is still sleeping. Bud is figuring out how to best deal with the strange new circumstance he has found himself in, and a big part of his coping mechanism is allowing his mind to take in information rather than immediately reacting to the situation. By the time that Bud gets to Grand Rapids, his coping skills are much more refined. That's what allows him to adapt so well to the various personalities of the band members as well as deal with the fairly antagonistic nature of Calloway. Bud takes his time with the man. Bud learns about him and the band. Bud is committed to seeing his plan through. Bud's ability to cope has allowed him to stick with a situation far longer than he did back when he was with the Amos family.