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Walter Dean MyersA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The “boat basin”—a harbor for yachts downtown—symbolizes socioeconomic disparity and the dream of upward mobility. It is a place where Jamal and Tito always want to be, especially when they feel down. Myers suggests their visits here are a type of ritual with this line: “[S]oon they were going along the walk picking out boats, the way they always did” (61). The people who own these boats represent a different way of living to Jamal and Tito, a less violent life without poverty and the daily struggles that they face. After Jamal pulls a gun on Dwayne and believes that his life as he knows it is over, he heads to the boat basin without knowing why. He sees two women there on a boat and thinks that “If he knew them, everything in his life would be different” (110).
Their visits to the harbor also serve to highlight a difference between Tito and Jamal. When they’re gazing at the boats, Tito picks out a small one as his “first boat” whereas Jamal says that he’s “going to get a big boat first” (62). Tito’s fantasy is more practical, whereas Jamal wants the most expensive and will only let movie stars ride on it with him.
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