The Homework Machine

Differences between the four students’ personalities and long-held beliefs are reinforced in these chapters. Snik’s pro-war stance clashes with Judy’s antiwar beliefs, and this discord peaks when Snik’s father visits their class. Neither Snik nor Judy is willing to listen to the other’s point of view, with Judy calling the experience of Snik’s father bringing his gun to school “horrible” and Snik calling Judy “obnoxious” for challenging his father. The divide between Kelsey, Judy, and Snik seems to grow when Kelsey comes to school with pink hair. Snik says Kelsey looks like a “cartoon character” and assumes she is seeking attention, and Judy says Kelsey’s pink hair is “hideous” and questions why Kelsey’s mother let her do it. For her part, Kelsey sneers at Judy and Snik for taking hair color so seriously. Judy, Snik, and Kelsey are reinforcing their positions in their defined social group, where dyed pink hair symbolizes either freedom of expression or unattractive, attention-seeking behavior. In a moment that demonstrates The Power of Empathy, Judy stops to think about how she doesn’t like being judged by the color of her skin and acknowledges that she shouldn’t judge others—but Judy still doesn’t “like” or understand Kelsey.

Snik’s belief that being popular and having a group of “cool” friends is universally desirable is underscored by his assumption that Brenton will jump at Snik’s offer to be his friend. When Brenton “laughs” in Snik’s face at the suggestion Snik is taken aback and is even more surprised when Brenton doesn’t expect anything in return for the use of his machine. The contrast between Brenton’s practical and matter-of-fact outlook on life and Snik’s more transactional approach is highlighted during this interaction—Brenton cannot see the benefit of having friends, and Snik cannot comprehend that someone would give something to him for nothing. Snik’s persuasive nature is shown in the way he persuades Judy to join the homework machine pact. He reminds her that she is the “second smartest kid in the class,” playing on her desire to be the best. Snik sticks to his cool image amongst his peers, but to the police Snik is honest and admits that he does not find chess boring but that he hates to lose, so much so that he would rather not learn to play than lose to Brenton.

As the recordings progress, similarities between the students’ personalities appear. Brenton explains that he designs and runs the “wear red socks to school” software because he’s fascinated with human psychology. Brenton is influencing people on a large scale—using the same tactics of peer pressure that Snik uses on a smaller scale in the classroom. When Brenton comments that he wants to find out what triggers “a whole bunch of people [to] all start doing the same thing for no apparent reason” (63), he foreshadows the motive of the “stalker,” Milner. After Brenton tells the D Squad that he was the one who started “red socks day,” Snik muses, “Think of the power! He could make every kid in America hop backward and recite the ‘Pledge of Allegiance’ if he wanted to” (66).

The game of chess ties several threads of the narrative together. It allows Snik’s relationship with his father to be fleshed out and gives Brenton an opportunity to connect with Snik over a common interest: strategies for winning a battle. Brenton points out “chess is essentially a virtual simulation of war” (56). Brenton seems uninterested in developing social relationships with his peers, but his keen observations of Snik’s interest in building a catapult and chess show that Brenton is not as socially awkward as initially suggested. Brenton is reluctant to call the D Squad his “friends” at this point in the story, claiming that, “I really don’t need or have time for friends” (70), but he does notice that other students in the classroom are treating him better, and he attributes this change to his being “cool by association” (73). Brenton has not changed in the classroom, but because he is seen to be “friends” with Snik, Kelsey, and Judy, he has suddenly become acceptable, despite his quirks. Snik, Kelsey, and Judy are the “influencers” in their social groups, and if they think Brenton is “cool,” the others accept their assessment. The only character not to buy into D Squad’s friendship is Ronnie, who does not seem to be part of any social group. He cannot fathom how “relatively cool” Snik could be friends with “dweeb” Brenton—which speaks to his own insecurities about being accepted into a group as much as to his intuition about “something” being up.

Other signs of the four students’ budding friendship are shown by their fond memories of Snik’s burp while naming the homework machine together and by the casual way Judy says they all put their hands together to commit to keeping Belch a secret. After they named Belch and made their pact, they “played kickball” (59), something that would have been unlikely a few weeks before. Miss Rasmussen’s comment, “It’s so rare to see a boy like Sam forming a friendship with a boy like Brenton or a girl like Kelsey bonding with a girl like Judy” (60) shows that teachers understand that kids tend to form social groups of “like” students defined by their physical, socioeconomic, and cultural attributes. Miss Rasmussen is pleased that students from such different backgrounds are becoming friends, but her surprise highlights how seldom different groups overlap.