The story Whale Talk takes place in a small town in Washington. I believe the main purpose of this story is to show the physical and psychological effects of child abuse and to show that there are evil people in the world, but their evil will eventually catch up with them. No matter how bad things get, a good person will eventually defeat a bad person. There are multiple examples and multiple types of abuse, not only child abuse, but also domestic violence among adults and adolescents. The main character of Whale Talk is The Tao Jones, like the stock market. His name is TJ for obvious reasons. He is colored and lives in a neighborhood frequented by both the KKK and skinheads, which makes life complicated at best. He's also a freak athlete in everything, whether it's basketball or swimming, he does it all. This should be perfect considering he attends Cutter High, a school that thrives on its athletics department, and he could be a great addition to any of their sports teams. He refuses to join any of them, for several reasons, mainly because the idea of ​​being yelled at and not yelling back doesn't sit well with him. Most teachers say that TJ is selfish and has no respect for anything because he "wastes" all his talent. Although TJ is the main character, I don't think he is the most important character. This title goes to Chris Coughlin. He is left mentally disabled after his mother's boyfriend wrapped his face in plastic wrap to stop him from crying. His half-brother, now deceased, was a legendary athlete at Cutter High. Chris admired his brother a lot and his death really affected him. He wears his brother's old letterman jacket all the time because it reminds him of Chris. This is where Mike Barbour and his band of idiots find themselves in the middle of paper...at such a vulnerable age. I've gone over some of the different types of abuse in the story, but I haven't covered them all. It's disgusting to see what people do to children and to think how different that adult who was abused as a child might be if it never happened. The cure for cancer might be stuck in an abused child's head and it will never come out, because instead of going to medical school like they were destined to, they turned to drugs and l alcohol to cope with what happened to him. It was a great book, but it took me a lot longer to finish it, simply because of how upsetting some of the things discussed were. If you're looking for a book that will make you think, bring tears to your eyes, and teach you a thing or two, I highly recommend this book and might re-read it myself. I hope my eyes can stay dry this time.