American Son Blog 3

Later I read the the next two chapters of American Son.  In reading the first chapter, it seems that both Stone and Gabe have made it to Meridan, Oregon.  They decide that they should spend the night in a motel to rest and continue tomorrow.  When they go to the hotel, Gabe noticed that Stone knew where he was going and which one to stop at because they passed so many motels.  This made Gabe uncomfortable because he felt betrayed and used.  In the hotel, Stone signed the papers and told Gabe that it was paid.  This makes Gabe curious on who paid it and what is going in so after asking the same question several times, Stone said that Gabe's own mother paid for it and she flew to Oregon earlier today.  So Gabe wanted to apologize to Stone for making assumptions on him.  Later they went to Denny's to meet his mom but Gabe never knew that her aunt, his step father's sister, to be there.  Both Gabe and his aunt were not getting a long because she was frustrated on Gabe following on the fotsteps of his brother, Tomas and then when his mom comes in, Gabe tells Stone that that's their maid.  But Gabe calling his own mother a maid created a big misunderstanding between Stone and Aunt Jessica.  Later Stone left and the rest went back to the motel.  gabe and Ika were the only ones in the hotel in the final scene.  At this time Ika asked Gabe he told Stone she was their maid and gabe continues to deny it.  She cried eventually and did not want Gabe to comfrort her.  This shows how disappointed she is about her own son who has traformed from a sweet and caring to to Tomas.  Filipino mothers tend to not be comforted after heated argument that hurt them in the inside.  I know this because my mother was like that everytime we disagree on something.
Betino then sends a long letter urging Ika to bring her children to the Philippines were they will be disciplined and have values by a real private catholic school.  He even said that it is no too late to take the offer.  Betino continues to explain thta the people continue to overexaggerate the crime in the Philippines but in reality, they are right.
In the next chapter, Tomas got a new explorer and already knew abouty Gabe's incident with his car and Buster.  Gabe promised that he would get Buster and pay Tomas back so Tomas runs errands for him so he can pay it off.  One of them was vandalizing the car of Eddy Ho, a former friend of Tomas, it did not work well because Eddy tried to stab Gabe to death.  But he was aved just in time by his dog and Tomas.  After that Tomas developed a soft spot for Gabe and they eat pizza and he tells Gabe that mom will make the same dinner and that we should lie that a client made them dinner.  But when they got home, she made dinner and it was something different.  What I have seen in this chapter is that it was rare that Tomas would care for gabe after disrespectinghim, insulting him, and beaating him to death once.  Also it shows that Ika is hurt that she was not being appreciated as a mom and she is not toough to stand her ground and be firm in disciplining her kids and in life.  A mom should be firm and strong and wiser has to be more respected when it comes to kids and in life in general.