Okay... before I actually found out who Squares really was ( background ) I felt he was the most "real" character in the book. I mean... he seemed to MAKE Will face reality. BUUUUT as I continued to read, this character has some really deep character flaws! I mean who doesn't, but I found his to be paradoxical even oxymoronic!!! He was a skin head... Nazi sympathizer... I presume in his youth... I have no idea... how he turned into this "Yoga" Guru...( I stopped at this point to go back and see if the author clued us in on the transformation) I know that he became popular after some celebrity "discovered" him from his squares workout, so I guess his celebrity status was serendipitous... but at times I thought that maybe he was working for the FBI- he was a very mysterious character... lots of blank spaces. Even with all of his "realness" he still had demons that he had difficulty facing. I mean he wanted Will to face reality, but he was not real good at it for his own life and situation. He seemed to connect with the street kids even better than Will... he knew how to "hook" them.... Will did not seem to be savvy on the street. Squares fit right in.... so I am concluding that he was probably very much like the street people... Will did not come from the street.
When he found out that Wanda was pregnant... I was not sure if he did not want the child because it would be mixed... or b/c he did not want a child with a black woman... you know... some people are okay with black people and white people together BUT they DO NOT want them to procreate!!! So... I was not sure what his reasoning was... maybe he felt he would not be a good father because he did not have a good example or an example at all.
I am sure that Wanda knew about his background(I hope ) ... I totally sympathized with her reasons for wanting to have the baby... as far as she knew she could not have any children. What a surprise...I just don't know if she should have left the decision up to Squares as to whether or not to keep it.... I mean... if you never thought you could have a baby and now you are pregnant... this is probably your last chance... but maybe she was just too fragile to not have Squares support. What I wonder is how you have a baby under these conditions... you know... he has a past and so does she... maybe that was the problem.
2 comments:
Squares was interesting. His past was kind of shady. I agree with the fact that Squares helped Will face reality. I also thought he was working undercover for the FBI. I think the fact that he kept the tattoo and turned it into four squares as a reminder of the person he used to be. I think he honestly changed who he was before, especially with dating Wanda. I don’t know exactly why he didn’t want to have the child. I think it was because of the kids he worked with, or maybe he felt karma was going to bite him in the butt with his child for what he used to be.
Squares seemed like a person who didn’t really want to discuss his past or his feelings. He surrounded himself with work, and seemed too dedicated to his job rather than his relationships.
Wanda deserved better. She pretty much conceived a miracle child who was not supposed to happen. She deserved a man who was willing to share that joy with her, not a person who was emotionally unavailable like squares. I wish the author would have gone more into why Squares was so against talking about his baby.
Squares...I thought the same thing at first that he was an FBI agent because he was very rationale. He made Will face his fears, think outside the box, but he did not want anyone delving into his personal life. Whenever Will got too close to the truth, he backed off, closed up. I think Squares was able to pull himself out of a troubled youth. He related to the children on the street because he was one of them.
I think His and Wanda's relationship was interesting to say the least. Here he was a skin head, hated black people, but falls in love with a black woman. Remember, he kept the tatoo on his forehead as a reminder of who he was, the type of life he led, a reminder of where he came from. Sort of "Remember my past, so I won't make the same mistakes in the future". Talk about paradoxical!!. The one thing he hated, he ended up loving. Wow!!
I don't think him not wanting Wanda to have the baby had anything to do with her being black. It was all about him and his fear of being a father and a good father. On page 326, Squares tell Will about his son who died in a car crash with his drug addicted mother. Squares blames himself for his son's death. He does what he does with the children on the street to redeem himself, but no matter how many children he saves, it does not bring Michael back!
I really think he loves Wanda and in the end he faces his fears of being a father. He kind of took his own advice!
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