Dynamic Duo

Now I know who the other main character of the novel is. His name is Mingus Rude, and he moves in to the neighborhood.

Rachel, Dylan's mother, kinda pushes Dylan to be friends with Mingus and tells him that the two of them will be best friends. She couldn't be more right.

But now is a good time to do a character study on the two of them.

Dylan is quiet and thoughtful. He doesn't say much, doesn't explore much, and he's very non-confrontational. He'll play with the other kids mostly because he has nothing else to do, his mother is determined he grow up on the streets as a true Brooklyn kid like her. He doesn't seem to notice the stillness of his life, but is rather content to be doing the same thing day after day. He cowers before bullies, lets them take what they want, do what they want to him, knowing that if he doesn't prostrate himself before them they'll keep beating him up. He's independent, reads a lot, and is very intelligent, but not very brave or curious.

Mingus has a sort of obsession with titles and comic books. He loves the idea of leaving him mark on things, being remembered. He knows all of the comic books and admires the heroes, wants to be more like them. He smokes weed stolen from his father (his mother left), and tries to act cool all the time. He has a habit of giving everybody ridiculous nicknames on the spot, and generally wanders around and does his own thing. He's very self-sufficient, and unlike Dylan, people don't seem to mess with him. He loves looking at the graffiti and writing left on walls and such, the nicknames people wrote on everything, decoding the nicknames. He has his own tag, "DOSE", that he starts to write too. He's very calm and chilled out all of the time.