Character Analysis-Son of Mob
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Lee Ann SpillaneCharacter Analysis-Son of Mob
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Lee Ann SpillaneLee Ann Spillane My Teacher s Name English I 23 February 2012 Character Analysis: Vince Falls Far from the
Tree Gordon Korman paints an unusual picture of the mafia in his novel, Son of the Mob. Vince Luca, the son of mobster Anthony Luca, finds himself in many tight spots: body in the trunk, money in the locker, criminals in the house. It s amazing that he falls far from the family tree. He takes the high road and chooses to avoid the life (Korman 109). Generous and a bit devious, Vince believes in helping others. How can Vince be generous? He saves and protects people. True the people he sticks his neck out for are criminals like Jimmy Rat and Ed Mishkin (Korman 157), but he is generous with them. Vince covers Jimmy Rat s debt, just six hundred bucks he tells his father (Korman 109). He takes the heat and vouch[es] for Rat (Korman 111) which saves Jimmy Rat s fingers and allows him more time to gather the money he owes the mob. It s not just mobsters Vince is generous with. He s also giving and generous with his girlfriend. He gives her time. He even arranges a special date for her and acts as her backup singer at a karaoke restaurant (Korman 116). His willingness to do something embarrassing, something he stink[s] at shows his generous nature (Korman 116). Vince gives of himself to Kendra and to others. Though he gives himself to Kendra, he s not always honest with her. Vince has an honest heart, but he can be devious. He doesn t tell Kendra the truth about his family s vending machine business the life (Korman 55). When he first meets her, he delights in kissing the FBI thinking that he is giving his family a taste of their own medicine (Korman 57). Instead of feeling the victim of a vending machine moment , he s at first, connecting with Kendra just to spite his father (Korman 57). Once he falls for Kendra, he has to hide his true identity. He covers it up. He refuses dinner with her family saying, let s keep it just our thing a while longer (Korman 122) and he goes out of his way to keep his family from knowing about his relationship. Even though Vince is a bit devious when it comes to telling the truth to Kendra (or to his family about his relationship with Kendra), he really just wants to help the people in his life. He wants to help the petty criminals who come up short on the money they owe his father. In his own defense he says I m just helping the guy out (Korman 158). The guy in that case is Ed Mishkin who owed Vince s father more than nine hundred dollars. He wants to help Ed and save Ed or his aunt from violence. He also wants to help his relationship with Kendra survive. He fears losing her as is shown in what he says after his encounter with Jimmy Rat, a sick feeling takes hold in the pit of my stomach as it sinks in that my next tap dance will determine whether or not I ve still got a girlfriend (Korman 107). His tap dance is
the story he will make up to cover for his involvement with Rat. He s trying to balance the good and the bad in order to help his relationship with Kendra. Vince might not be in the right when it comes to not telling Kendra the whole truth, but he is trying. He s trying to stay on the right path, to stay out of the family business and make his own way, but like most teens he s not there yet. His generosity gets him in trouble hopefully, the trouble will be worth the result.
