Monday, March 8, 2010


T. Ray is a bad man who doesn’t have any reason for his actions other than plain-old-meanness.

23 comments:

  1. I strongly disagree. T.Ray isn't a bad man, he is a confused man who doesnt know how to treat a young lady. He is also a hurt man because he lost the woman he loved most in this world and Lily is a small reminder of that everytime he looks at her. Parents do crazy things when there protecting there young, some parents turn to punishment as a way of keeping there children safe.
    ~King Of Hearts

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  2. This isn't true since he is a working single father that has to take care of his daughter and doesn't fully understand the needs of a doughter since he is a guy. You can still tell that he cares about her but still is a little hard to get through. For example, when Lily attemps to try and get her father to talk about her mother but he just tells her not to talk about her.
    -jigglypuff-

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  3. True i think that T. Ray is a very bad man and although his daughter lily did kill her mom by accident at a young age this gives him no right to treat her the way that he does. i think he is deffinatly too hard on her, but i also think he has potential to change because it does seem like he does want her to be successful.

    -Alber Breneman

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  4. I agree with this. August said that Tray pretty much worshipped his lady. He should be able to love and praise his daughter just as he did her mom. And even when Lily was gone, when she called him he couldn't even say her favorite color. She was gone for a long time and all he had to say to her was 'we're going home' not something like i love you and im so happy you're safe. T Ray is a bad man.
    -Batman

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  5. I agree with this because for a single father taking care of a daughter may be very difficult for them as they have nothing in common. T. Ray should not be said to be a bad man since he is just a father attempting his best to try and keep his daughter safe.
    -jigglypuff-

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  6. False, I do not believe that T. Ray is a bad man just because, I think he has just been through a lot of hard times and he has just built up the pain. August had told Lily that before her mother had run away T. Ray had loved Debra and had worshiped her. Lily had never seen this side of him so she did not believe August, but this is an example of how T. Ray has built up the pain in his life which caused him to change. He loved Debora, and like August said, it tore him apart when she left him. In one of the very last sense in the book T. Ray comes to bring Lily back home. When he finds her and starts to drag her out of the house he keeps calling her "Debora". I think this shows why T. Ray was such a mean father to Lily because she reminded him of his wife who left him which makes him sad. :(
    -Megatron-

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  7. Penname- RacerSwitz
    False
    T. Ray is not a man that has no motive to be mad. He obviosly believed that Lily ment to kill her mother, but what we see and how others see the book isnt how T. Ray would interpret these. The book mentions T. Ray has been mean and agressive towards lily because he sees his wife in lily. Around chapter 14 when Lily answers the door and T. Ray is at the doorstep, T. Ray starts to scold Lily and to me T. Ray sees Deborah and when Lily calls him "Daddy" he stops. I believe he doesn't mean to be so hostile to Lily but Its hard to distinguish Lily from Deborah and he still believes that his wife is still leaving. And he believes that since Lily left, he is angry for leaving him too.

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  8. False, I don't think that T. Ray is mean just to be mean. He is mean to Lily because she reminds him of her mother. T. Ray was so upset and depressed after she left that he became a bitter person. Every time he sees Lily he thinks of her mom and that makes him even more upset. He loved Deborah and it hurt to be reminded of her.
    -Optimus Prime

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  9. This is false. T. Ray isn't a bad father its just harder for him to take care of his daughter when he is a single working father. Just because a parent punishes their kid doesn't mean they are a bad parent. He is doing the things he does to keep Lily safe and teach her to stay out of trouble. I also agree with the first 2 comments in the fact that he is a man so its harder for him to understand his daughter.
    -jonny quest-

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  10. Albert Breneman

    I strongly disagree with your statement. T. Ray was very much in love with Lily's mother. He resents the fact that she was killed by Lily on accident. He abuses and punishes Lily by making her kneel on dried grits, making fun of her attempts to better herself through reading, and refusing to offer her any signs of love. T. Ray takes out his general resentment and bitterness on Lily, because of his lost love.

    Hubert Funkenwinkle

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  11. T-Ray is just jealous of the fact that Lily's mother loved Lily more than she loved T-Ray. He was alwasy jealous of Lily for that, and that is why he was so crule to her. So T-ray has a reason to be mean, but it's a really bad childish reason to treat a child like Lily so badly.
    -Caroline Rice

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  12. King of Hearts is right. Parents can do crazy things to protect their children. Even if a father is strict and mean, he is probably doing it to protect his daughter from getting in trouble out in the world. He gets angry at lily easily probably becuse when he sees her it reminds him of the death of Deborah which was a bad time in his life.
    -Banjo Kazooie

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  13. Fatal Rage

    T. Ray has many anger problems and he never seems to have a reason for it. His daughter Lily is scared of her father because he shouts, discourages, and down talks his own daughter. Lily is a 14 year old girl and likes to read. in the book Lily is caught ready while selling peaches for her father T. Ray. She hopes to go to collage some day and her father doesn’t realize how important it is for her to start readying and how much that will help her in her future. I think that that he is still upset with her because of the incident that occurred when she was just a little girl. When she was around 4 years old she accidently killed her mother. It all started when Lily’s mother was cleaning out a closet and T. Ray is yelling at her. She then pulls out a gun and they both start tussling on the ground. Lily then says that she remembers picking up the gun. Later in the novel T. Ray blames her completely for the death of her mother and it makes her feel very sad and depressed. Although T. Ray has some reasons of madness other times he just try’s to make stuff up.

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  14. King of Hearts,
    I completely agree with you 100%, i'm not sure if i could possibly add to what you had to say on this remark. T. Ray's love for Lily's mother could be entirely seen when he came to where Lily had been living while he was looking around. The look in his eyes said it all.
    -Diplomash

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  15. This is a response to Batman

    RacerSwitz

    I completly dissagree with your statements because i think T. Ray said these things because he truly does and he knoiws that he is a bad father, and he just wants her to be safe and he knows that there at the bee house she is very well taken care of. Truthfully T. Ray is a good father but he just needs to learn a few things and get past Lily accidently killing her mother.

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  16. I have a mixed feeling with this statement. I agree with both the King of Hearts and Jiggly Puff. I agree with the King of Hearts in that T. Ray is just very confused and doesn't know how to treat a lady. Clearly he does not know how if he is making his own daughter kneel on grits all the time.I would also like to add that he must of had something traumatic happen in his past that he is taking out on Lily now. I also agree with Jiggly Puff in that he should have no reason to act the way he does since he is a single father that has to take care of his daughter. If anyone has a responsibility like that, they would change their ways and find it in them to be a better father. To many he may come off as just plain-old-mean but in order for him to act so hideously, he must of experienced the same kind of treatment when he was a kid as well.

    Ivana B. Baad

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  17. I disagree with the reasoning with ‘King of Hearts,’ T. Ray is not confused with how to treat a young lady; it’s more that Lily reminds him of Deborah, and he hurt he felts from this. Besides, Lily is his daughter; he isn’t looking to treat a young lady right. And I am confused with what T. Ray is protecting Lily from, directing towards the conclusion of the piece. Also I completely agree with all of Optimus Prime’s points.
    -Number 3

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  18. This is a response to Batman. I agree and disagree with batman. Although T. Ray sounds like a rotten man I think there is still some good in him. If I lost my wife I would probably always sound like an old ornery man too. I think that he could use some love and help by others. If you loose your love and your daughter did it life would be terrible.
    -Fatal Rage-

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  19. I dont agree with this at all. Everyone acts in the way that they are feeling inside. He is a confused man, he lost his wife who he loved and is a single parent to lilly. He has to be both mom and dad for her and he dosnt know how to do that. He loves lilly but dosnt know how to show her.

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  20. I strongly dissagree with this statement. I think everyone acts on how they are feeling inside. He has been through a lot his life has not been easy. He lost the woman that he loved and is now a single parent to lilly. He has to be both mother and father to her and he dosnt know how to do that. He loves lilly as any parent loves his child, he just dosnt know how to show it.
    -Nimzzaj

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  21. I agree with megatron in that T Ray is a very damaged person. Over the years he has built up all of his pain and anger, and does not treat Lily well. I think he is mean for a reason, because he misses his wife and Lily reminds him of her. However, that does not make the way he treats Lily right. He needs to become a better man before attempting to be a father to Lily and get over his loss and anger.
    ~Peter Parker

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  22. t-ray is not a bad person he is just misunderstood and depressed. he misses his wife and wants her back he loves lily he just does not know how to be her father without having a mother around to help become a young women.
    Hershey93

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  23. I disagree with Albert Breneman about his beliefs on T.Ray. He is generally a good man, is just holding a little grudge because he feels Lily is partially responsible for killing Deborah. Although he needs to be mature and understand Lily isnt responsible, and start focusing on creating a relationship with his daughter Lily.

    -Jupe Jones

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