The Juvie Three

“The Remsenville Correctional Facility is a medium-security adult prison with high walls, guard towers with fixed machine guns, and trained attack dogs at the gates. ‘What’s a fifteen-year-old doing in a place like this?’ Healy mutters.”

Gecko and Healy have just come from the juvenile detention center where Gecko was imprisoned, and they’ve entered a very different world. This is where we’ll also meet Arjay, an innocent man and the least deserving of all three boys to be kept in a place like this. Healy’s dialogue at the end of this quote highlights the contrast and sense of displacement.

Not that he’s got big dreams; dreams are for suckers. His old man taught him that lesson fairly early on. The jerk never understood that while shouting, smacking, and cursing the dreams out of Terence, he was also giving Terence a dream of a different sort—the dream of putting several hundred miles between himself and his father.”

Although this quote is presented as narration rather than dialogue, this comes in closer to Terence’s natural voice. Here we see the first hints of his backstory, the events that shaped him as a person, and his motivations for embarking on the path that he did.

“I could have that key, and probably his underwear too, and he’d never know they’re missing.”

This is Terence’s first line of dialogue that we see after he meets Gecko and Arjay for the first time. In it we see an undercurrent of his innate need to impress his new roommates and to always be the smartest person in the room; as an opening line, it also draws sharp contrast between the three characters and sets Terence up as the one on the outside who will eventually draw conflict into the group.

“Gecko is surprised, and more than a little scared, by the intensity of the motions roiling inside him. Terence’s in-your-face arrogance is nothing new. Gecko has been taking this kind of crap from his brother since birth.”

This scene has set up Gecko as the good kid out of the three of them and the one most committed to following Healy’s rules. However, this line alludes to the inner conflict boiling underneath the surface. Gecko’s shifting balance between these two polarities of himself are a major part of his story arc and his road to self-understanding.

“He knows the ropes. He’s woven most of them. The bathroom break, for one. With a little creativity, a twenty-five-second bodily function can be stretched into a twenty-five-minute absence from a forty-minute class. He takes one every period, which gives him a chance to cruise the hallways and scope the place out.”

The specificity that Korman uses in this section is notable because it hints at Terence’s phenomenal problem-solving skills. Throughout the novel, he draws attention to the fact that he can’t handle school, reading, or writing; however, by the time the story reaches its climax we see that he does have intelligence and is able to tap into it when it’s for something he feels is important.

“The foreman, Jerry, is the most neatly dressed, well-groomed homeless person they’ve ever seen. He has gotten himself off the street working for the B.I.D. and now runs the place while still living in a shelter.”

This minor character’s story is not entirely dissimilar to Healy’s, in that someone with difficult circumstances was able to change his fate through hard work and determination. It’s this goal of his for the boys that sets the entire plot in motion. This parallel gently supports the story’s theme of reformation, free will, and not letting the future be defined by the past.

“Arjay wasn’t a straight-A student or a Big Man on Campus, but he had complete confidence in his own judgment. Nobody could make him go out for a sport if he had no interest in it, just as no one could make him smoke or drink or shoplift or whatever the fashion of the nanosecond happened to be. And nobody was going to make him confess to murder when that wasn’t what happened.”

This description of Arjay perfectly encompasses his view of himself and the world. While his concrete sense of self is admirable, it is also slightly overly simplistic—it was his refusal to lie, to see the world for what it was, that got him sent to prison. This line also sets up his contrast and relationship with Terence, who displays frequently that he can’t trust his own judgment of himself or others.

“The feeling is so alien that Arjay has to dig deep into memory to recognize it. He’s having fun. He can’t remember the last time.”

This represents a turning point for Arjay as he goes from feeling like a hunted animal to feeling more like a human being. While the novel has already hinted at his deep relationship with music, this moment shows us that it could be a way out of his troubling life for him. Opening up this door plants the seed that will later inspire him to go and see live music and then join a band.

“It occurs to Arjay that he’s the only one with a home to miss. Terence wants nothing to do with his family, and Gecko seems all but abandoned by his. The painful surprise is that Arjay is actually at a disadvantage because he comes from a great mom and dad.”

This passage shows the contrast between the three boys. While Arjay was convicted for the worst crime among all three of them, he’s also the one who had the closest thing to a normal life. This makes their sentence and their inability to contact their loved ones more difficult for him than anyone else.

“‘Your brother,’ snorts Casey. ‘More like your crutch. Must be nice to have a built-in scapegoat so you can cry “no fair” when you get what you deserve.’”

Although the boys dislike Casey and her contrarian ways, Gecko can’t deny that there may be some truth to her words. Her comment creates a turning point for him to begin looking inward and examining his responsibilities. He considers that although his brother had been using him, Gecko may have been using him in return to do what he loved while laying the consequences on someone else. This theme of personal responsibility continues throughout the novel as Gecko learns to take a hard look at his own actions.

“Yet there’s Healy, laughing and shouting with an infectious enthusiasm. It doesn’t seem to bother him at all when their dinner gets bounced off walls and pavement—not even when it rolls into the road and is narrowly missed by a double-decker sightseeing bus.”

This scene is pivotal in endearing us to Healy right before he takes his fall. Without this moment, his accident wouldn’t have the same emotional resonance for either the reader or the halfway house boys. This is the first time we see the four of them acting like a family; everyone is having fun and letting their guard down. We get a glimpse of what they have the potential to become.

“‘They can try,’ says Gecko Fosse.”

Korman uses Gecko’s surname as an effective literary device throughout the novel. He uses it only in situations where Gecko’s old self is shining through, often in relation to his skills of driving or “not thinking.” The introduction of his surname often suggests that some sort of internal shift is taking place as he leans into the side of himself he needs to function best in that moment.

“But this is DeAndre’s home turf, where he can call out his dogs. Around here, Terence’s only dogs are Gecko and Arjay, and they’re about as gangster as Dora the Explorer.”

This line accomplishes two things: It heightens the sense of contrast between Terence and DeAndre, showing DeAndre in a position of control and status while Terence is an outsider. It also foreshadows the bond that Terence, Gecko, and Arjay form by the end of the novel and hints at the central theme of found family.

“Sure, he already knew DeAndre’s crew would be taking the place down. But to actually see it—your plan working perfectly, with you on the outside—it feels like a death in the family.”

Here we again see evidence of Terence’s planning and organizational skills, and his emotional investment in the positive results. This moment also alludes to his prior experience planning a robbery for another gang, a misjudgment that landed him in juvie. The blend of pride, loss, and betrayal make this an emotionally charged moment for him.

“Funny he should be turning into a student now, of all times. It’s almost as if school never really counted before. A bad grade was just a letter on a report card. But these days, a blown quiz or ditched homework could set in motion a disastrous domino effect.”

This moment shows the positive effect that Healy is having on the boys, even without being physically present in their lives. It also shows that even though their motivation is coming from Healy, they are putting their studies into action of their own volition. This follows the theme of self-responsibility and how the boys are beginning to wake up to the impact they are having on their own fates.

“In that instant, he doesn’t see a delivery truck, but a time machine. It can take him back before Healy, before Atchison, before the world got so complicated. Back to a day when all Gecko Fosse needed was a wheel in his hands and a motor roaring underneath him.”

In this moment, the two polarities of Gecko come as close to being individually personified as they do in the novel; he acknowledges the “old Gecko” and how far he has come since his time as a getaway driver for his brother. He is able to reflect that his world has become infinitely more complex, and in doing so, he takes a big step in his journey toward responsibility and growth.

“Gecko Fosse is on the couch in the staff lounge of the Yorktown Medical Center, making out with Roxanne and not thinking. The not thinking part is crucial.”

Gecko leans into the second of his old, reliable skills: not thinking. The use of his surname shows how he’s temporarily checked out of his situation and is taking a backseat from his problems and responsibilities. This shows that although he is on the way to growing as a person, his path is not easy and there is a constant, underlying temptation to return to his old self.

“The moment is so perfect it’s almost painful—Roxanne on his arm, the entire city stretched out in front of them.”

In this moment we see a snapshot of normalcy: The person Gecko could have been with a different life. This piece of existence is at odds with who he is, both in terms of Roxanne’s money and his precarious situation, and he aches to hold onto it as long as he can. This moment with Roxanne is especially powerful because of how very soon her father will fight to keep the two of them apart. However, it also gives Gecko an idea of what sort of life could be waiting for him after the halfway house.

“He stands there, waiting for the punches to start flying, when he notices someone at his side. Terence wears his signature bored expression, but his body language says battle-ready, his posture ramrod straight and defiant.”

Here we see the dynamic between the boys beginning to shift as Terence comes to Gecko’s aid by choice. Unlike other instances in which they were thrown together for a common goal, Terence had nothing at stake here and would have lost nothing by staying away. Organically, they are beginning to come together as a family.

“From the moment he was old enough to realize that his father was a jerk with a mean streak, he’s understood that the solution is to get with a solid crew. When you’re down with the right people, you’ve got it all—respect, protection, money. Nobody messes with you, and when you want something, you call on your dogs to make it happen.”

This moment summarizes everything Terence has been working for. In his eyes, the support of the right friends will make all his problems go away. This is the first time that his goal is truly within reach, and he finds he no longer wants it. This scene highlights the differences between Terence and DeAndre and forces Terence to examine who he is as a person and what he has the potential to become.

“Ms. Vaughn’s message has placed a time bomb inside a structure that has already begun to collapse.”

Here, Korman uses time as a classic literary device to increase suspense. While there have already been hints of the unravelling of their precarious situation, the boys now have a concrete time limit in which to get Healy back. This moment effectively launches the novel into its final act as all the final pieces fall into place.

“Never before have Gecko and Arjay seen Terence so businesslike. For the next twenty minutes he questions Roxanne on the minutest details of the alley, the kitchen, the layout of that part of the hospital, and the people who work there. If the kid would devote this kind of energy and drive to schoolwork, he’d be a presidential scholar.”

Throughout the novel we have seen hints of Terence’s underutilized intelligence and problem-solving skills. Much like Gecko’s driving, this is a largely dormant skill that has been lying in wait for the moment when it is needed most. While Terence has directly or indirectly caused most of the group’s problems, this scene makes it very clear that they could not have broken Healy out of the hospital without him. His embracing of these organizational skills reveal his full potential and mark a turning point in his road to redemption.

“‘The thinking wasn’t the problem,’ Terence insists. ‘I just had the wrong dogs, that’s all. Right now, I got all the crew I need—and that includes Healy.’”

Terence reflects on his ultimate goal that initially got him sent to juvie and then later launched the events of the novel into action. This moment shows how much he has grown since his time in Chicago. He hasn’t discarded his goal completely, but instead he reworked it in a healthier way and accepted his place as part of Healy’s found family.