Summary
Armpit continues experiencing microagressions. People cross the street when they see him approaching and a woman stares at him in a grocery store parking lot while he’s talking to Ginny. Armpit takes these situations in stride and tries to make light of them.
X-Ray's attempt to sell two of the Kaira DeLeon tickets is unsuccessful because the buyers only have checks. X-Ray wants to give the buyers one more chance to bring cash, so he and Armpit are going to meet the buyers at ten p.m. in the H-E-B parking lot. Armpit and X-Ray wait in the parking lot for the man in the white Suburban, but he’s late. X-Ray begins to feel that this is a sign of disrespect, and begins to leave just as the white Suburban is pulling in. Armpit asks X-Ray to stay and pull back in, but X-Ray argues that while they’re missing out on $270, their respect is worth much more than that.
Armpit narrowly avoids an altercation with known troublemakers driving beside him as he’s on his way to school to give his speech in class. The guys drive by and mock him for going to school and a girl in the backseat of the car tries to get Coo, Ginny's stuffed animal, from Armpit. An altercation almost arises after one of the guys mocks Ginny, but Armpit takes a page out of Ginny's book and responds by explaining that Ginny has cerebral palsy. Armpit gets out of the situation and arrives at his speech class to give his speech about Coo, but during the speech, he accidentally begins with his closing sentence. When he's jeered at by his peers, he decides to wing his speech and speak about Ginny's bravery.
After Armpit's speech, he’s the first one out of class. Tatiana, Armpit's crush, catches up to him and tells him that she thought his speech was sweet and that she’s going to vote for Coo. While Tatiana and Armpit are speaking, X-Ray comes racing down the hallway and hands him $530. Tatiana sees this and rushes away without looking back because she senses trouble. We learn X-Ray has sold four tickets to a woman buying gifts for her child’s birthday.
While Kaira usually rides in her tour bus alone, this time she’s riding with her band mates—a group of 40-year-old men preoccupied with playing cards. While speaking to her bandmates, Kaira learns that her stepfather, El Genius, is cheating on her mother with her travel coordinator Aileen. Kaira remembers how Aileen went all the way to Connecticut to get the pillow that her late father gave her when she was three years old when she left it at a hotel. She doesn't understand how Aileen could be interested in El Genius, and wonders whether her mother knows about her husband's infidelity.
Armpit and X-Ray go to a barbecue joint to meet a man named Murdock to sell two tickets. Because the barbecue spot is in West Austin, and he thinks Murdock’s work schedule of working from 6 AM to 12 AM is suspicious, X-Ray asks Armpit to come along. Everything goes smoothly, and Armpit feels guilty for having been suspicious of the older African-American business owner whose only intention is to buy tickets to impress his daughter.
Armpit is disappointed when he doesn't win the speech contest. While Tatiana consoles Armpit, he invites her to go to the Kaira DeLeon’s concert with him on Saturday. Armpit doesn’t have tickets for the Kaira DeLeon’s concert, but hopes that X-Ray will have some left that he can buy off of him. Armpit frantically searches the school for a phone to call X-Ray. Armpit offers to buy the tickets, but X-Ray says there is no need because the tickets are his so he doesn't have to buy them twice.
Analysis
Louis Sachar develops the theme of prejudice through the situations Armpit encounters, as well as through Armpit's inner dialogue. After Tatiana comforts Armpit, he invites her to the Kaira DeLeon concert to which she says yes. The only issue is that he doesn't have tickets, and he isn't sure if X-Ray has already sold the last tickets. He runs around the school looking for a phone to use, and realizes he'll need to use a pay phone, but he doesn't have change. When he spots Matt, one of his skinny white classmates from his economics class, he runs up to him and breathlessly asks for 50 cents. Matt is completely flustered and reacts as if he's being robbed, which Armpit is completely oblivious to. Just as Armpit promises to pay him back, Matt has already run away. In this situation, we see the theme of prejudice through Matt's response to Armpit as well as the disconnect between how Matt sees Armpit, how Armpit sees himself, and the actual situation at hand.
Because Matt sees Armpit first as a large African American guy who served time at Camp Green Lake, he assumes Armpit's intentions are violent. Readers have more context and know this isn't the case, so we can see how prejudice has blinded Matt from seeing the reality of the situation.
Interestingly, Sachar uses situational irony to add nuance to the theme of prejudice in this novel. So far, besides Armpit's parents who are afraid he'll turn out like his incarcerated brother, most of the prejudicial actions have been instigated by white people. When Armpit and X-Ray go to a barbecue joint in West Austin to sell concert tickets, they're surprised to see that the buyer is an older black man. Armpit is on high alert, as he predicts foul play. Even when Murdock offers them a meal on the house Armpit doesn't lower his guard until they have eaten and are paid. Armpit feels bad about his reaction, and we as the reader feel bad too because we also expect Murdock to con Armpit and X-Ray.
This example of situational irony closes the distance the reader may have created between themselves and the possibility of acting in prejudicial ways. While Armpit has been on the receiving end of prejudice throughout the book, and we've felt badly for him, we still unfairly expect the worse of a man who doesn't look too different from Armpit. We see how prejudice can cloud our view of situations, and we know how Matt may have experienced the situation with Armpit.
Sachar uses literary devices such as repetition and motif to foreshadow drama around the tickets and Armpit meeting Kaira DeLeon. Sachar uses repetition when Armpit notices the phrase "this ticket may not be resold" on the tickets he buys from Lonestar Arena with X-Ray, and again before selling them to Murdock. The repetition creates an ominous tone in the text—they are doing precisely what, we repeatedly hear, they are not allowed to do—and foreshadows trouble to come. Further, when X-Ray and Armpit go to the barbecue joint to sell tickets to Murdock, Murdock's friend plays one of Kaira DeLeon's songs on the jukebox. Again, the song seems to be a motif supporting the theme of the invisible connection between people. When the tickets have been sold to Murdock, the lyrics read:
Just hold on! A little bit longer
...Hold on, Baby just a little big longer
'cause l'll get around to you
These lyrics appear again as if Kaira is speaking to Armpit. Once Armpit and X-Ray are preparing to leave the barbecue house without facing any issues, Kaira's song comes into focus once again:
A little bit longer
Hold on, Baby,
Just a little bit longer and then I'll be on my way
Sachar uses Kaira's music as a transcendent line of communication between Kaira and Armpit, symbolizing their connection. The use of this motif also serves as a literary device foreshadowing their meeting and their future importance in each other's lives.
