Paper Things

Gage is Ari’s older brother and her only surviving relative. He is 19 years old and the main supporting character in Ari’s narrative. He is a flawed character, but the novel shows his personal growth and increasing maturity, much of which drives the emotional conflict and resolution of Ari’s story. It is through Gage’s decisions and actions that Ari becomes unhoused, and this is an essential plot driver. Gage decides to leave home after too much conflict with Janna, and after promising their mother to stay together, Ari leaves with him. Gage is still immature in some ways and doesn’t think about the big picture when he leaves home with his 11-year-old sister. He asks her to decide between loyalty and safety, takes her out of a safe environment, and lies to her about having a place to stay. Gage ends up causing his sister to endure couch surfing, starvation, sleep deprivation, bitter cold, loneliness, social isolation, health risks, and more. This is due to his personal conflict with Janna and his inability to separate his own feelings from the moral or responsible course of action.

In many ways, Gage is a normal 19-year-old youth, but his circumstances mean that the flaws and mistakes of his youth cause disproportionate problems for himself and others. Gage is emotional, prone to anger, and insecure about his failures and inadequacies. He sarcastically describes himself as “too dumb to get one of the college scholarships for foster kids. Too dumb to get a real job. Too dumb to be a reader” (30), and thus he struggles to find his place in the world. He is often defensive and struggles to process his feelings. He often yells at Ari when he is frustrated or tired and occasionally forgets to pick her up or neglects to tell her where he is. Gage’s pessimism sometimes gets the better of him, but he gets a job at Jiffy Lube. Unfortunately, finding an apartment is more complicated, and Ari returns home to Janna’s before Gage manages to do so. It is not until Ari goes back home that Gage realizes the full extent of his mistakes: “You didn’t let me down. I let you down” (314). Gage’s character development and the emotional resolution this allows between him and Ari is essential to the novel’s narrative arc.

Janna is Ari and Gage’s legal guardian and was their mother’s friend. She and Ari love one another, and Janna has stepped in to care for them, but her decisions are sometimes selfish and irresponsible. Ari and Gage leave Janna when she and Gage misunderstand one another and constantly argue. Gage is 19 and decides it’s time to move out. When he wants to take Ari with him, Janna allows this without checking first that they have a home to go to. Janna lets them leave in an immature way, not telling Ari how she feels about it and allowing Gage to leave angry. She cuts off Ari’s lunch money and Gage’s cell phone.

Ari has the opportunity to glimpse what Janna’s life was like when she was young, and Ari is surprised to find that Janna looked much happier than she does now:

It was a burst of pink daises tied up with a hot-pink bow. The bow matches the ribbon around Janna’s lacy pink-and-white dress. Janna looks so young, and she’s wearing an expression that I’ve rarely seen on her before: a full smile, which lights up her whole face (224).

Janna and Ari’s mother had a complicated friendship, which got in the way of Janna’s ability to parent Gage fairly. Gage resented Janna because of her rules and because he believed she never really wanted them. Ironically, Janna always worried that Gage and Ari never accepted her as their guardian. Janna wanted to keep them safe and healthy, but she let her sense of rejection be a cause of bad judgment. Janna feels betrayed when Ari and Gage leave, and it takes time for her to be willing to accept Ari back into her life. Janna is an example of how emotional intelligence and openness are important inside families.

Ari’s fond memories of Janna and her home often feature in her story and are what lead her back there by the book’s conclusion. The prospect of a return to Janna’s home is set up in the narrative as the book’s hoped-for happy ending. Ari remembers doing crafts with Janna, being taken care of when she was sick, and always feeling safe and looked after. Janna’s previous lack of responsibility, however, prevents the book’s conclusion from being entirely secure.

Reggie is a dynamic character who meets Ari at the soup kitchen and then on several encounters thereafter. Reggie’s role in the book is an example of an adult who is living with homelessness long term: His kindness, generosity, and good humor challenge the pervasive stereotypes of people living without homes in America.

Reggie lost his home after coming home from the war with a disability and no longer being able to afford to pay for it. He and his dog, Amelia, are often seen walking the streets, talking to familiar faces, and trying to brighten up people’s day. Reggie is a kind and considerate man who goes out of his way to help others in any small way he can. Although he experiences discrimination, such as when someone throws a brick at him, he never loses his faith in people. Reggie is skilled at creating paper planes, and Ari originally knows him from seeing him making planes for the kids at the soup kitchen. When Reggie gifts Ari a paper plane, it turns out to be the most important symbol of The Power of Hope that Ari could ask for. She wishes on it, hoping for Gage to get a job, and sure enough, he does.

Reggie also lends Ari and Gage his storage unit for the night, risking losing access to it altogether. Ari later sees Reggie taking another family back to his unit, indicating that he shares it with anyone who might need it: “And I realize that just as Reggie isn’t my secret, neither is his little home” (268). Reggie also makes a paper plane for Fran, a staff member at Head Start, and the idea of paper plane wishes soon catches on around the community, giving people hope and bringing them together. Reggie is an important symbol of the importance of optimism in surviving challenging situations.

Sasha is Ari’s best friend before Ari loses her home and the distance between her and Sasha slowly widens. As their relationship changes, Sasha increasingly becomes the novel’s antagonist. At first, it is possible that she may not understand, but she is deliberately cruel to Ari as Ari’s challenges become increasingly apparent. Sasha is privileged, but instead of helping Ari, she isolates her, treating her as if she is contagious. Sasha comes to represent the harmful nature of bullying, stigmatization, and discrimination against others who are without homes.

Ari and Sasha grew up together, and Ari has fond memories of cutting up catalogs and creating paper families with Sasha when they were younger. When Ari’s mother was sick and nearing death, Sasha was the only one who was honest with Ari about it. Now, in the year before middle school, Ari is preoccupied with comparing herself to Sasha and constantly feels like she doesn’t measure up to Sasha or to the standards of Carter Middle School. Sasha earns a position as a patrol leader when Ari isn’t picked for a position at all, making Ari feel jealous and like she’s been left in the shadows.

Although Sasha and Ari are supposed to be best friends, Ari cannot bring herself to tell Sasha the truth about her situation. Instead, Ari lies to Sasha, causing the gap between them to widen as Sasha grows increasingly suspicious of what might be going on in Ari’s life. Sasha starts teasing Ari about her appearance and chooses new friends over Ari. When Ari tries to help Sasha with math homework, Sasha criticizes her method rather than showing appreciation. Sasha no longer has any interest in paper dolls and laughs at her former self for enjoying such a thing, which hurts Ari’s feelings. One night when Gage is out of options, he asks Ari to call Sasha to stay over, but Sasha rejects her, telling Ari that she has been acting too weird lately. Ari never does manage to confront Sasha and tell her the truth, but she does tell the reporter, which allows Sasha to find out, and the girls eventually come to a form of resolution. Sasha is not accepted by Carter, a sort of narrative punishment for her bad treatment of Ari and a plot point that enables Ari to have a future at Carter without Sasha. Although, at first, the novel frames the separation between Ari and Sasha as Sasha moving on, it becomes increasingly clear that Ari is more mature than Sasha and has different interests and values. Air has outgrown Sasha.

Daniel is Ari’s new friend at school. Ari’s friendship with him grows as hers with Sasha diminishes, and he is a foil to Sasha, showing youthful compassion and perceptiveness. He is a dynamic character that is introduced under mysterious circumstances when he helps Ari complete her bibliography. He says nothing to her, and Ari wonders why he went out of his way to risk helping her. A few days later, Daniel invites Ari to join him in the completion of his year-end bucket list, pushing Ari to go outside her comfort zone and inspiring her to find joy and fun in life again. Together, Daniel and Ari embrace the risky and unexpected when they hang snowflakes in the school as an act of protest and a statement about tradition as it relates to the importance of community in a school. Daniel is rambunctious, outgoing, and eager to get to know Ari, and his forthcoming nature is just what Ari needs to feel noticed and appreciated again. Daniel is also the first person that Ari tells about her experiences of homelessness and what led to her current position. She and Daniel host the craft table together on Crazy Hat Day, which bonds them further, and at the sleepover, Daniel gifts Ari a snowflake necklace. The necklace is a symbol of their shared love of tradition, as well as Daniel’s affection for Ari. In the novel’s closing scene, Ari and Daniel hold hands and jump off the bleachers together, ready to embrace life. Daniel’s role in the novel is to emphasize the importance of a sense of fun in life, especially childhood. His character demonstrates that small acts of kindness and friendship can provide a lifeline for someone facing serious challenges, even when the nature of those challenges has been kept secret.

Briggs is Gage’s best friend. They have known each other since elementary school, and Briggs is someone that both Gage and Ari can rely on for as much support as Briggs is able to offer. Briggs is a static character but a loyal friend and makes sacrifices to help his friends. Although he lives in a tiny studio apartment with a strict landlord, Briggs risks getting evicted and shares his space with Gage and Ari as often as he can. He’s kind to Ari, pays attention to her, and encourages her to enjoy life. He trusts Ari to be in his apartment when he isn’t there, he is one of the few people who Ari shares her paper things with. Briggs is important in the novel because he helps to improve things for Gage and Ari by sharing his access to resources and connections. He gives Ari a hat for Crazy Hat Day, which is part of the inspiration for bringing the tradition back. He helps Gage get a job by referring him to Jiffy Lube. Briggs’ support is demonstrative of The Necessity of Community in the lives of people like Ari and Gage.