podcast

A 14-year-old boy named Terry builds a car and goes on a journey. He meets a man named Waylon who becomes a father figure to him. Waylon has the ability to hurt people without touching them. They meet another man named Wayne and explore different places in the US. Wayne and Waylon have powers and are gay. The story ends with a cliffhanger as they continue their journey. There is no clear moral, but it emphasizes learning and exploring. Hello, I'm going to be reviewing this book, The Car, by Gary Paulsen. Alright, so the beginning of the story starts with this boy named Terry, he's like 14 years old, and his parents have never really cared much about him, and he's not actually shocked one day when they just decide to leave. His father's like, oh, I'm sick of everything, I'ma leave, and so is his mother. And there was a car inside their garage, and Terry, just feeling curious, decides to build it. It's a key successful in this, and the book gives lots of descriptions of building the car. I find this silent part kinda uninteresting. And Terry just decides to take the car and heads out west. And I thought, you know, that's where it would end, but no, this is where it starts. He meets this guy named Waylon, who just appears inside of his car one day. He just, while Terry is sleeping at night, Waylon just comes in, sits in, just in by himself. Now, Waylon is given a preface. He fought in the Vietnam War with this buddy named Wayne and killed a lot of people. But he also has a history of just traveling the country and singing for rides. Just like, holding up signs and being like, I'll sing for rides and stuff. He basically traveled a lot across the country and learned a lot. He's not like a homeless hobo, though. He does seem like a perfectly clean person, cleans his dishes, has a decent amount of money. And interestingly enough, Terry trusts Waylon. So, you know, Waylon, who's like, in his 40s, acts like a father figure to Terry. So, it's an important part of the story, trusting others. Don't trust everyone, but, you know, gotta trust some people. And there is an incident with a beer bottle, which leads me to the second point. Stay calm. This guy chucks a beer bottle at Terry. Waylon tells him not to, you know, retaliate and just stay calm. Asks for an apology, but then he realizes that Waylon can mysteriously hurt people. Just flinches, and all of a sudden, the guy's on the ground with his nose bleeding. So, you know, you gotta stay calm. But, you know, Waylon has this weird ability. So they keep driving, keep driving, and meet a friend named Wayne. This is a very strange and awkward meeting. Terry sees some naked woman who Wayne happens to be painting. This is just very strange. I don't understand it at all. Wayne also paints a lot of pictures of tanks. And, yes, indeed, how he managed to hurt the person without even seemingly touching him. He finds out from Wayne that Waylon can actually terminate people, whatever that's supposed to mean. And, yeah, he meets Wayne and this other woman. And Wayne has this interesting motorbike. And this motorbike is personified a lot. It's called Baby. And the car that Terry built is called the Cat. And it's also personified. The use of the words growled and died are used to describe the Cat in many instances. And so they treat the vehicles just like people. And they mean a lot in this story. So they find out that Terry doesn't really know that much about the United States itself in history. So they decide to go trucking. So, essentially, they're going out and just driving around the U.S. When they first decide to go, Waylon says to Terry, Drive on, Macduff. And this is another literary device, an allusion. Waylon is alluding to a line in Macbeth when Macbeth says, Lay on, Macduff. And he says this right when he's about to attack Macduff and actually gets killed himself. So, you know, I just found this part interesting. We stop by this wise old man's trailer first. And that brings me to my next literary device, imagery. This very wise old man is described as such. There was no hair left and a face of mess of interlocking small wrinkles, impossibly close together and so thick they almost made of texture. I don't know, this just seems like a very vivid description to me. They stop by other places like a religious convent, a casino where they make a ton of money. And then they stop to see some real cowboys. They would go to a diner and see these cowboys. And there's this rude cowboy who's, like, making fun of them. So, making fun of Wayne and Terry. And so, essentially, Wayne uses his weird powers that he supposedly learned in the Vietnam War to terminate people. This guy is on the floor with his nose bleeding as well. And the other cowboys are really mad at him. They start chasing him. And there's just this huge car, um, I don't know, this huge car ride or, like, great escape. You know, they're being chased by the cowboys' cars. They're driving out into the countryside, escaping the city. And they eventually have to stop. Because, again, a baby is a motorbike and, you know, it can't go on forever. And so they stop and there is a fight. And because Wayne and Waylon have this interesting power, they make good work of the cowboys. But the police are coming. And so, they force Terry to go out on his own. Because they don't want him to get in trouble. After all, he still is just a youngster. But, uh, Terry leaves, but then later turns back because he knows that he can't continue without the aid of these two friends. Who, actually, in this story, happen to be gay. Wayne and Waylon are, I suppose, boyfriends. And so that concludes the story. It kind of ends on a cliffhanger where we don't know what's going to happen to anyone. But, I suppose, they just keep on trucking and exploring the country. And, I don't know, the story seems kind of boring at first. And it got a bit more interesting as it progressed. But I don't think there was really a clear moral. It's just learning about everything that you can, I suppose, when you travel. And, yeah, it's just a story about a couple guys traveling and learning about some American history. And these people just can injure others. But, we can learn, just as Waylon does.