TRIBES ESSAY

Tribes is a novel written by Catherine MaCphail and was published in 2002. It is about a young boy, Kevin, who joins a gang that go by the name, "The Tribe". Kevin lives with his sister, Glory and his mum and dad also known as Honey Sue and El Diablo. Kevin changes from being a normal hard working teenager to becoming a gangster who makes loads of bad decisions. At the end of the book he ends up in some tricky situations including his family. 

In the beginning of the book Kevin, the hard working dedicted young boy who everyone liked and had no intentions of joining a gang, infact he thought that gangs were stupid, we know this as on page 34 Kevin said to himself that "gangs were stupid". 
At the end of the book after all the drama that occured throughout the book, Kevin finally  regained his old life back after thinking about what he was doing and realising how immoral Salom (the leader of the tribe) was. Eventually, Salom and Kevin fell out, this caused the Tribe to fall apart. This shows that Kevin is smart and logical. It also shows that the gang life just isnt for him. 
Kevin first met Salom when Kevin was wrongly chased by "The Rebels" (the Tribes arch enemies) into a car park, but what the Rebels didnt know was that the Tribe was chasing them, the two gangs got into a fight and Kevin was about to escape when he noticed a boy in trouble when he was in a fight, so Kevin freed him and the Rebels ran away so this gained Kevin alot of respect from the Tribe and from then on Kevin was good friends with the Tribe and not long later Kevin was joining the Tribe but to do that he would have to do a initiation test Kevin didnt know what this was as no one had told anyone but he wanted to do what no one else had and tell everyone. So he went to where he had to do the initiation test and he entered the abandoned site, blindfolded, which made him even more nervous than he already was. And then he walked up some sets of stairs and when he reached the top he saw and plank, and on the other side of the plank was another building, and straight away Kevin knew what he had to do, so he done it and when he was finished he was very releived, we know this as when he got to the otherside "all the boys lifted their faces and howled  joyously".After the walk of death all the boys went to get some fish and chips and Salom said to Kevin "I was going to do the same as you, tell everyone, but I couldnt do it." and it was at this moment Kevin realised that neither could he tell anyone what the initiation test was. This shows that Kevins feeling towards the gang has changed dramatically.
A short while after  Kevin had joined the Tribe they all decided to skive school and go to the lake. They went along with what they had decided to do and they all had the time of theyre lives and had a blast. This shows us that when Kevin is with the Tribe he is having a lot of fun. Although at the end of the day Kevin was caught skiving by his mum and dad and got in lots of trouble, this also shows us that he also gets in trouble when he is with the Tribe.
A couple of fun filled weeks later Kevin was at Saloms house and Kevin had asked Salom a question asking why "Salom is evil." was spray painted everywhere and this turned into a arguement, which then turned into a fight and Saloms mum and dad were very disappointed with the boys. Saloms parents realised that where they were living wasnt working out for Salom as he was making and getting into alot of trouble. This caused Saloms family to move away from where they stayed. And Kevin also left the Tribe.

So overall I thought this was a really good book as when I was reading it I felt as if I never wanted to stop reading it as it was that dramatic and thrilling.
                                                                    

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Jamie Stewart