Metaphor(s) in "The Watsons Go To Birmingham" from Chapters 4 and 5 please
Answers
Explanation: Because she was born in Alabama, Wilona thinks that the cold in Michigan is brutal; she dresses Kenny and Joey up to go to school in so many layers that the two children can hardly move. Once they get to school, Kenny must help Joey get all her clothes off. Joey hates this entire setup, and says that maybe Byron can help them convince their mother that her measures are unnecessary. Kenny asks Byron, who reminds Kenny that he used to take all the excess clothing off Kenny when he was little. Byron agrees, though, to talk to Joey and put her mind at ease. Kenny is suspicious.
Byron convinces Joey that the reason she has to wear all the clothes is that, every morning, the streets in front of the Watsons' house are full of dead, frozen people. Garbage trucks come and pick up the dead bodies before anyone wakes up and notices. He says that the only people who freeze are those with thin Southern blood; the reason they have to be so careful is that their blood is half Southern. Kenny knows that Byron's explanation is untrue, but Joetta is horrified and no longer complains when she has to wear her winter clothes.A good thing about Wilona's obsession with bundling up for the cold, though, is that her children are the only kids in the town who get to wear real leather gloves. Everyone else wears cheap plastic mittens. Kenny even plays a trick with his leather gloves so that Rufus can have a pair too: he tells his mother that he lost his first pair, so she would give him a second pair. Thus, the boys would each have one pair to wear.
One day, though, Kenny's pair disappears. Just a few days after, Larry Dunn comes into school wearing a pair of real leather gloves; the only difference from Kenny's is that Kenny's were black, while Larry's are brown. Rufus insists that Larry stole Kenny's gloves, and shows Kenny the snow that Larry touched. It has stains of black on it, and Kenny realizes that Larry stained the gloves with black shoe polish.
Kenny is upset about this, but makes the mistake of telling Byron and Buphead. The two of them go over to Larry and begin to beat him up until he gives the gloves back. Byron tells Kenny to come over and hit Larry himself. Kenny hits him twice, but not hard, and this is not enough for Byron, who punches Kenny himself in the stomach. A bunch of kids gather around to watch as Byron continues to torment Larry. Byron makes Larry act out a movie called The Great Carp Escape, and repeatedly throws Larry into the fence (like a fish flopping into a net). Kenny is upset that he told Byron what happened; even though Larry is a bully, Kenny understands how rough it is to be beat up by Byron.
Byron has a habit of playing with matches, and Wilona repeatedly threatens to do "what she always said she would" if he keeps it up. Her house caught fire once when she was a child and she does not want the same thing to happen again. Despite these warnings, Byron continues his bad behavior; Kenny peeks in on him in the bathroom, where Byron is pretending to make a movie in which he lights toilet paper parachutes on fire and drops them into the toilet
Wilona comes upstairs to investigate why the toilet is being flushed so much and smells the match smoke. Furious, she drags Byron down the stairs by the neck and tells Joey to go to the kitchen and bring her a box of matches. Joey is upset and tries to defend Byron, so Wilona asks Kenny, but he balks as well. Wilona is forced to go get the matches herself. Joey tells Byron to run and get away. Wilona's plan is to burn Byron's fingers so that he feels what fire can do and never touches matches again.
Joey starts to cry, and Wilona softens up a bit and explains that she has to do this even though she does not want to; if she does not correct Byron, their house might be set on fire. Byron tries to run, but Wilona catches him and is about to touch a lit match to his fingers when Joey quickly blows out the match before it gets to him. Joey continues doing this as her mother tries again and again, until finally Wilona gives up and lets Daniel take responsibility for punishing Byron later that night.