Conflicts

   At the beginning of this book I really wasn't quite sure what the main conflict was. There were many minor conflicts such as avoiding being caught by the police, Jose's girl problems with Trini, and earning enough money to buy food and survive. However, as the story went on, I found a few important quotes and parts of the book that really helped to reveal the main conflict. The main conflict of the story is that Ray has dreams of a good future of being a good citizen, but Jose wants to continue his life of crime and getting into trouble. In order for Ray to do this, he has to realize that Jose is only going to weigh him down. This is extremely difficult for him because Ray and Jose are "like brothers" and are really close. Throughout the story, Ray progresses into a better person trying to live a normal life, while Jose seems to have no intentions of changing. I liked how the conflict wasn't extremely obvious and really had to be inferred through the things that were said.