I Go Along

I Go Along

In the story "I Go Along" by Richard Peck the character of Gene is explored. When he goes on a class trip to see a poet, he interacts with Sharon Willis, which makes him start to change his attitude.

Gene's character is set on his views, and how he sees people. In the start he's a follower; "everybody in the class puts up their hands. I mean everybody. I put up mine. I go along." Gene wants to blend in with the crowd, however when the class is fooling around, he is really intrigued by the idea of a poetry reading. But by going on this class trip to see the poet, he'd be marked a nerd by his classmates. Gene broke away from his class and got on the bus: "And at five-thirty I have no idea why I'm sitting in the parking lot." Gene is the only one from his class who is going to see the poet at work. When on the bus Gene tries to hide himself from the outside world, by crouching low and covering up his face.

While Gene is on the bus, he interacts with Sharon. Sharon shows Gene that you don't always have to follow the crowd, but you can be independent. When Sharon's friends ask her to sit with them, she decides to sit with Gene: "'I'll stay here with Gene,'"and when they get to the bleachers, Sharon sticks by his side. Sharon believes that Gene has potential and that he can be somebody if he tried: "'You're as bright as anybody on this bus.'" Perhaps he will take Sharon's words to heart.

At the end of the story he pretends that things will go back to how he is comfortable; "Mrs. Tibetts is braking for the turnoff, and we're about to get back to normal," but, in the end he knows that his attitude has already change