Crash

A surprise late child for his middle-aged parents, Penn Webb moves with them from North Dakota to Pennsylvania when he’s six. He promptly assumes a friendship with Crash Coogan, a local bully who tries and fails to torment him. Penn, a Quaker and vegetarian, doesn’t want to hurt anyone or anything. Instead, he cherishes nature and animals, especially his pet turtle. His polite formality and eccentric interests brand him at school as a geek, and kids taunt him, but he ignores it. He becomes a cheerleader, attends protests against a new mall, and grows into a successful track athlete.

Penn dominates the first several chapters with his attempts to befriend a reluctant Crash. He fades into the background to become a target for Crash’s aggression until the final chapters, when Crash reverses his attitude and they become friends. Penn is the one person who doesn’t quite make sense to Crash; his puzzling courage in the face of Crash’s bullying becomes one of the main catalysts for Crash’s eventual reformation.

Crash’s sister, Abby, is two years younger, lively, and brave. She loves creatures. As a small child, she collected worms and sow bugs. In fifth grade, when a mouse gets into the house and terrifies Crash, Abby tries to protect it. She becomes friends with Penn Webb, which irritates Crash. In sympathy with Penn, Abby becomes a vegetarian, and in solidarity with a protest group, she demonstrates against construction of a new mall, a place her mom’s real estate company represents. She also wants to build a wildlife refuge in the backyard, but her father forbids it. Abby’s theme is nature: She stands up to the meat-eating, mall-building mentality of her family. Her contrary nature towards her family is a subconscious response back to her overworked, absentee parents. Abby voices the frustrations about the family that Crash is afraid to speak.

Crash’s maternal grandfather, Scooter, is a former Navy cook who moves in with the family. Everyone’s delighted, especially Crash and Abby, who listen nightly to his stories about faraway lands. Scooter serves as a substitute parent for the kids, whose mom and dad are too busy to give them quality time. An over-enthusiastic Crash knocks Scooter down during a family football game, and Scooter later has a stroke. This incident prompts a remorseful Crash to rethink his values and change his ways. A good-hearted person who knows how to be friends with anyone, Scooter sets an example for Crash to admire and emulate.

Penn’s parents are artists and vegetarian Quakers. In middle age, they have a child, Penn, and they love him dearly. They’re kindly and generous toward Crash, though he dislikes them for their apparent poverty, lack of a TV, their beliefs, and their son, and he declines their frequent invitations to dinner. The Webbs represent an alternate view of ‘the good life’ Crash desires: They stand as a challenge to Crash’s glib assumption that life is about having many material possessions and being superior to other people. Penn’s great-grandfather, Henry, visits the Webbs, and when Crash sees them on the sidelines cheering for Penn, he realizes that, like him, Penn also has a grandparent whom he loves. Through the Webb family’s example, Crash learns the importance of a close-knit family.

A recent transfer to Crash’s middle school, Jane Forbes stuns Crash and Mike with her mature beauty. Jane, though, expresses no interest in them—her last name suggests the forbidden or the unattainable—and instead befriends Penn and deplores Crash for his cruel pranks. When Crash tries to force her to dance with him at a school event, she kicks him in the leg and calls him the biggest jerk she’s ever met. Jane symbolizes for Crash the unachievable. Her rejection is a challenge to Crash, a conquest he yearns to make, someone who successfully defies him and thereby calls into question his arrogant assumptions about how wonderful he is and how he should treat the people he wants as friends.

Crash’s best friend in sixth and seventh grade, Mike Deluca, a fellow jock and bully, goes out for football alongside Crash. They both despise Penn Webb. Mike thinks of ways to torment Penn, and at first Crash participates eagerly. After Scooter has his stroke, Crash begins to realize that being mean to people, especially those who want to be your friend, is heartless and stupid. Mike doesn’t understand Crash’s change of attitude. Mike represents the foolish, childish behavior that Crash finally leaves behind.

Crash’s parents work hard; when they get home, they’re too tired to give much attention to their kids. Mr. Coogan started his own business when Crash was six and his mom sells real estate. They’re fixated on making money and don’t realize they’re missing out on their children’s early years. In turn, Abby and Crash lack the parenting and guidance they need. Scooter’s stroke makes Mrs. Coogan realize that time with loved ones is precious, and she cuts back on work to spend more time with her father and children. The Coogans are the typical, driven American couple who try hard to provide for their offspring, and in doing so, they forget to be parents.