Paper Polly: Brought to you by the Bookaneer Review: Trash (by Andy Mulligan) (Post II)

When we read stories we often generate questions to ask about the story and we often wonder the answers to these questions.  In the Andy Mulligan novel Trash, there is one burning question that we often think of throughout this story -

Is it OK to lie, steal or cheat?

Since we are born, we are taught certain moral lessons by those who love us. Lying, stealing and cheating are all unacceptable traits to have. Having said that, certain life situations impose on us the need to lie, to protect ourselves and our family and friends. I seldom think of those less fortunate in life having to resort to stealing in order to survive. It is my belief that in each person there is good and bad. What separates us is this ability to distinguish between right or wrong. 

In the story we reviewed last time, Trash, we discover that some of the main characters lie to other people, mainly to the police. For example, Raphael (the protagonist of the story) lied to the police twice (in Chapter 3 of Part One and Chapter 2 of Part Two).  In the 1^st instance of this situation, Raphael found a black bag, which contains an ID of a then-unknown Gabriel Olondriz. He also found 11,000 pesos inside the bag, wrapped with a bill. The moment he discovered the large amount of money in the bag, he had a choice to make.  He had the choice to either take the bag and hand it into the police or keep the bag to himself.  This is where it becomes evident to us as we read on, that those “Trash boys” have not lived their childhood and grew up believing in doing whatever it takes to survive.   Their fear of the police, who were known for their brutality and corruption, took over any desire to hand in the bag.  This supports my point “sometimes, we lie and steal to survive”.  At that very moment, Raphael thought that if he keeps the money and runs from the police, he can share the money with his family AND become rich and popular in Behala. But, on the other hand, if he lied to the police, then he might get in trouble and result in a far more horrific situation in the future (which he did).

This situation happened again in Part Two of the story. In Part Two, Raphael is kidnapped by the police and sent to the station. When the police told Raphael about the missing bag (what the police were looking for), Raphael was lying, and therefore, getting injured by the cops. The team also told Raphael about finding a shoe in the dump – he really didn’t find a shoe like he said in Part One – he was lying! The police became more furious with every single lie Raphael said and in the end, threatened to throw him out the window. Thankfully, Raphael survived. But how did he get through this labyrinth of lying and police madness? Unfortunately, as I mentioned in my introduction, sometimes our need to lie to protect those we love and the fear that just takes over us, is much stronger than our own desire to tell the truth.  Fear disables us and we find ourselves saying whatever is needed to get out of a hard situation.  Poverty is another life situation that renders us slaves to money.  The boys felt so weak at the sight of all that money, they knew that that money would give them some comfort and would provide them with a better life, good food and security, all of which the boys never experienced before.  

So, in conclusion, yes… sometimes in our fight to live we do steal and we do lie.