Black and White

It is important to learn from mistakes and let others watch your character change (in a good way). In the novel, Black and White by Paul Volponi, the reader watches Marcus and Eddie change through the court system and when committing a crime. Marcus and Eddie, also known as Black and White, learn every action has a consequence or reward through the involvement with violence and weapons, the thoughts of Marcus reporting Eddie to the police, and the reactions of their peers.

Marcus changes through the emotions and the fear of violence after a poor choice was made when he had seen Eddie shoot the gun. Marcus and Eddie needed money for school trips, but they spent their money on new shoes. This becomes a problem when the money for the trips were due. To get quick money Marcus and Eddie begin to do stick-ups with Eddie's grandfather's gun in front of P.C. Richards and Sons. One night they were robbing a older man in his car when the gun went off. Eddie takes the keys from the ignition and hides them on the back bumper. They both fled from the scene. "I admit it. I've been scared shit-less lots of times. But I was never as shook as when the gun in Eddie's hand went off. It thundered inside that car like the whole world was coming to an end. I never expected Eddie to pull the trigger, by accident or any other way. I guess that was a big part of it, too. In all the time Eddie had that gun, we never shot it off once. It was just for show, so we could get our hands on some quick money. That's all. We never flashed it around in front of our friends or anything. It was just for us to know about." (1). Marcus felt scared, frightened, and most of all, shaken up. He was mainly unnerved because the gun had gone off for the first time. They only kept the gun for show and to shock the person they were robbing. They had never even shown it to friends. Marcus was surprised when the trigger was pulled by Eddie. This is because he never expected Eddie to pull the trigger, on purpose or by accident. Once Eddie did, the gun sounded as if it was a loud boom, somewhat like thunder, inside that car. This takes an emotional toll on him.

Eddie finally became more self conscious about the incident after seeing his best friend Marcus get arrested. He had many thoughts/fears of Marcus reporting him to the police. He felt bad because Marcus had gotten in trouble for something he initially did. Before the arrest of Marcus had was made, him and Eddie go around mugging, but did not ramrod most people for money. The both of them live in a low-income area, so the extra cash they got from this was beneficial, they truly got it as quick money to go on school trips or buy necessities such as shoes. Eddie would take his grandfathers gun with them whenever they were going to mug someone. It was mainly just for show, he had never fired it before. One day, the gun went off and Eddie had shot someone. That "someone" was Sidney Parker, one of the cities bus drivers. Sidney, who had been shot, survived and was able to identify Marcus since he rode the bus with his basketball team a few times. Marcus wasn't the one who had shot the gun though, it was actually Eddie, and the police wanted Marcus to give Eddie up. "A police car passed me on the street, and I just stood frozen until it rolled out of sight. I could feel my heart pounding inside my chest. I knew that Marcus wouldn't point a finger at me. But he might say the wrong thing by mistake, or the cops might trick