BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN 2

Beautiful Children is moving along hypnotically.  In the first part we were introduced to Bing, the comic book illustrator, Kenny, the shy and lonely artist, and Newell Ewing.  In the next section we meet a young anarchist, who looks at the world as a great conspiracy.  In our first meeting of this girl, an example of her extreme views is described in a somewhat humorous way, "Anyone who cared (any many who did not) had heard the girl with the shaved head explain that she'd pretty much existed on wheat and bottled water for three months now--and wheat was on shaky ground depending on how much she could download about this administrations policies toward corporate farm subsideis, and as for bottled water, two dollars for fucking water?  Totally elitist.  Another scam" (102).  Though I don't know much about this girl yet, the first impression Charles Bock has set up makes me wonder how she got so cynical and extreme.  My feelings of being naive were increased in this part because I had no idea that such extremes were out there--and at such an age!  Another character we meet is named Cheri Blossom, and is a stripper.  We are given vivid descriptions of her dancing, and learn that she pretends to be in a movie with all the sex and dancing she does: "Cheri could do theese things because she was performing not for the mark but for a movie.  And in this movie she was beyond sexy.  She was A STAR.  This is what she told herself" (112).  It's sad that Cheri has to pretend her life isn't her own, and that she's just acting.  I think that her search for salvation will be one of the most interesting, and so far she's the one I hope will find her way.  She's so unhappy and ashamed of what she does, so much that she has to feign being a movie star in her life.  The way that these characters will effect each other will be so interesting, and meeting these new characters who have lives I've never even imagined keeps me interesting in Charles Bock's book.

Another main part of the reading is how desperate and sad Ewell's parents are.  Lorraine has taken in many cats, and one could say it's to fill the emptiness Ewell has left in her heart, but I think it's just for something to care about and pass the time.  She's desperately searching, disregarding her husbands attempts to help, and her frustration continues to be fueled with every rejection she faces about Ewell.  I can't imagine the pain a parent would feel if their kid would run away, and I actually think Lorraine and her husband are holding up quite well considering what's happened.  They've tried to give Ewell a good life, and his obliviousness to the world is sickening when we see the foreshadowing of how bad it will end up for him.