Tuesday, March 9, 2010


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

22 comments:

  1. False, T.Ray is not a just a bad man he has a reason to be angry. He is angry because he killed his wife. He is also angry because his wife had left him. The reason he is always angry with Lilly is because she reminds him of his wife. Another reason is becasue he has lied to her all these years saying she killed her mom. T. Ray is a bad man now but he had to take man steps to get there.
    Red Power Ranger

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  2. False, T. Ray is not just an old man. Who lost his wife when Lilly was really wyoung. His daughter is the one that killed her not on purpose though. But before that Lilly's mom had left to August who a charcter who is later on in the story. She comes home and gets in a huge fight then the gun goes off. T. Ray had lost his wife. He changes because he lost the one he loved. And then Lilly runs away and T. Ray has lost everything.
    MilaGreen

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  3. T. Ray is human like any other character in the story, with his faults and his successes. Even though it may be true that his treatment of Lily is very abusive, it is not without reason. From the beginning of the story we see that he yells at her, makes her kneel on Marth Whites (grits), and continues to verbally abuse her. He doesn't seem to care about her birthday, or what Lily does for him such as when he disreguards the father's day card. As the reader continues, T. Ray is portrayed as this vile man. However near the end, after he finally catches up with Lily, T. Ray reveals something in his lash of anger. He pulls a knife to Lily and says "Deborah." It becomes obvious at this point that he sees Deborah's face instead of Lily's. Recently it was revealed that Deborah Owens left T. Ray because she didn't love him anymore. This was an enormous blow to his character, and changed him as August had told Lily life could so easily do. This entire ending scene really dipicts how T. Ray is simply a man who's love left him, and takes it out on the one thing that reminds him of it everyday: his daughter. In conclusion, I believe it is a wrong assumption that T. Ray is heartless for no reason. On the contrary, he has been struggling emotionally with Deborah leaving him, and has never fully recovered.

    Wonderbread

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  4. Joybucket:
    I believe he does have a reason for being mad and mean because he killed his wife. When he comes back to get Lily he starts to hit her and cry as he calls her Debra and in his mind I think he had hatred and sadness because of her wanting to leave him. He starts hitting her and than realizes it is his daughter! I think he was in a deep depression from all that he had been through and really just cant get out of it or admit that he shot her on accident. He will be forever in pain for his actions and thats why he seems mean! I believe he takes out all his anger on Lily when he makes her kneel on the grits. Maybe he is trying to get his emotions out by making other people feel as bad as him but Lily is an innocent girl that has feelings and does not know what went wrong with him and her mother.

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  5. Carlio Tuttlioton:
    T-ray, besides being an ass, i think does have some reasons to be mean. He lost his wife a while back and that must be very hard to go through, and it would probably make me cranky about life too. He is also surrounded by woman all the time and after a while that would get on my nerves. I know what that is like to be surrounded by the ladies (my family) and it's pretty obnoxious. He must be tired of everyone hatin on him since he beats his own daughter and threatens people.

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  6. False, T.Ray has his reasons for being mean. It's not because he's an emotionally neglecting man, its just that life has thrown him too much to handle and caused him to become bitter. Like when Lily's mom left him he fell into a pit of bitterness and kept his feelings to himself. He may have started out as a nice man, but "People can start out one way, and by the time life gets through with them they end up completely different. I don't doubt he started off loving your monther. In fact, i think he worshipped her."
    He may not seem like it but way back when her mother was still alive, T.Ray had actually loved her and Lily. But as time passed and her mother left, T.Ray started to resent Lily not because he had to take care of a kid, but because it hurt so much to look at her every time because it reminded him of the love of his life who left him without even looking back.
    He's a man filled with hurt and anger. His actions towards Lily are not justified but he does have a reason for being who he is and doing what he does.
    -Lady Gaga

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  7. I think T. Ray isn't necessarily a bad man. He definetly has reason to be angry, but in some cases he crosses the line. For example, when he forces Lily to kneel on grits, and the way he speaks to her sometimes. However, his wife did get taken from him. It would be an incredibly difficult situation to remain optimistic through. Imagine your spouse was killed right in front of you, it would be pretty difficult to be continuously a happy person afterwards. A lot of the time, he doesn't seem to care about Lily, and throughout the book he is portrayed as an evil man. But if you put yourself in his shoes, you begin to understand his character. Sometimes, a genuinely nice guy comes through. Like when Lily is selling peaches out in the front, and T. Ray comes out to talk to her. At first he begins as a man who just wants to tell his daughter what happened, but once she reveals she kind of remembers it, he becomes forcefully inquisitive. Lily remembering triggered something in him. I think he also became curious about what she remembered because he just wanted to know her point of view. But in the end, if you put yourself in T. Rays shoes, I think he at heart is a good guy and not a vile man as he is portrayed.

    -Awesome town

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  8. true, he is always pissed at someone or something and he just takes it out on everyone. Like he was one of the reasons Lily ran away because he always yelled at her and blamed everything on her. After his wife died he blamed Lily for her death and ever since then he walked around pissed all the time. When he called Lily he basically bitched her out over the phone. He also got really mad when Lily put nails through the peaches and almost flipped out on her on something as tiny as sticking nails through a peach.
    Jack Adams

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  9. False, t-ray is not a bad man, he has just been through a lot in his life, because his wife died when lily was younger, and he sometimes takes his anger outy on lily, even though he might not really mean it.
    John McCoy

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  11. I believe this statement to be false becasue T. Ray has several reasons to be mad. He has become an angry man because of the death of his wife. In chapter fourteen August says, "People can start out one way, and by the time life gets through with them they end up completely different. I don't doubt he started off loving your mother. In fact, I think he worshiped her." He loved his wife so much and Lily took her away from him. He's not just mean because he was born that way. He's mean because of his life experience.
    -Victoria Voorhees

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  12. False, I feel that he truly loves her. When Lily's mom left him he was forced to thing of Lily as Lily's mom. This made him angry and he was delusional towards what he truly felt towards Lily. When he found out where lily he had to cover up his love with blind rage, he loved her so much he left.

    Cats and Waffles

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  13. False, I feel that he truly loves her. When Lily's mom left him he was forced to thing of Lily as Lily's mom. This made him angry and he was delusional towards what he truly felt towards Lily. When he found out where lily he had to cover up his love with blind rage, he loved her so much he left.

    Cats and Waffles

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  14. T-Ray is not just a bad man. He is angry all the time because his wife died. As him and his wife were arguing Lily decided to listen in. She ended up shooting her own mother and running away. He then even gets more angry with Lily stressing out all the time about where she is. Finally he finds Lily and decides that letting Lily go would be the best choice for him.

    -noname

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  15. I believe that this comment is true. Oh wah, a woman left him, they do that all the time. That doesn't mean he has to be a jerk. He should get over it that his wife left him and that his six year old daughter shot her. He has no excuse to be a complete and total jackass.

    Tl:Dr T-ray is a jerk and he has no excuse.

    Foxes&Fruitjuice

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  16. False. I don't believe that T. Ray is completely a bad man. He has some evidence to support his actions. Although he has done some horrible things in his life and isn't really a father figure to Lily, I believe he is a good man at heart. In chapter 14 he comes back to Lily to take her back home. He misses her and knows that he was a bad man to her. Lily reminds him so much of his wife which he truly misses. I believe that his actions are his way of grieving. Letting Lily stay with the Boatwrights was also a smart thing for T. Ray to do. For once he was letting Lily do what she wanted and what was best for her. Clearly T. Ray has had a lot of problems and changes in his life but in his heart he is a good loving man.

    Lorraine Brown

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  17. this statement is true. T-Ray is a sour old man that now seems to enjoy messing with other people. Many would say that because his wife left so he deserves to be forgiven. However these people were wrong. He took out his bitterness on Lily and would not let her do anything she wanted. It was always sit out at the stand and try to sell peaches, even when there was no one there. When Lily was upset at him he gladly told Lily that she left her with him. June went through a similar trial. Her husband-to-be bailed on her just before the wedding was about to start. However she managed to find Neil and got married at the end of the book. What makes T-Ray different then June when they both lost the one they loved?

    Dogs & Pancakes

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  18. I disagree because before he became extremly grumpy August said "He loved Lily's mother, and treated her like a queen" or something like that. He just became bad because of everything he had to go through in his life. And loosing his wife. If anyone else went through that then they'd be just as bad.
    also, Anonymous said...
    "T-Ray is so cool he grows peaches and doesnt afraid of anything"
    that's true! haha

    Writeums Mclots

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  19. Jack Adams- I don't believe that T-Ray is just a bad man without reasons, his wife died and everyday he is reminded of her when he sees Lily. He may just be a little angry because of these things but he does have reasons for it. He thinks everyday too about how his wife left him, "'Deborah' I heard him mumble. 'You're not leaving me again.' I think he does really love Lily even though his actions seem like he doesnt. At the end of the story too, T-Ray leaves Lily with the sisters and with Rosaleen.
    -Kaya Litterson

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  20. The Red Power Ranger I agree with because I personally would be mad if my wife just left out of the blue. Maybe she was abused a little but people have to learn to suck it up sometimes because thats life
    prestige world wide

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  21. False. I think before the problems with his wife that he was a good man. Once all the problems surfaced about his wife he started holding in all the emotions and it bottled up to him being a mean guy. When his wife finally left him he snapped and killed her in front of Lily. I believe he is also mean to Lily now is because when looking at Lily he is looking at his wife becuase she remindes him of her.

    -yay!

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  22. False he is just trying to protect his daughter using tough love but lily doesnt understand that the will come around later and he is trying to teach her lessons though tough situations

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