In “Dance, Dance, Dance,” Arnold hides the fact that he and his family are poor. He thinks that nobody will like him anymore and that Penelope will break up with him. His fears cause him to lie about every thing and create excuses for why he didn’t have money. His excuses cartoon has some good examples of this, like: “No lunch money? I’m not hungry anyway,”(Alexie 120). He eventually learns that the truth is best and he should let people know who he really is. After Arnold learns this, he says, “If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty damn amazing,”(Alexie 129). This quote shows that he now knows the people who he thought were going to dislike him for being poor became even better friends to him after he opened up. He realizes that people will feel sympathy rather than exclude him.
I agree, Arnold thinks being poor will ruin his life and he will make him an outcast as well as getting bullied, so he lies. This fear Arnold holds inside himself makes him think of a many excuses to get out of the situation. This fear leads Arnold to feel inside himself, like a turtle in its shell. When Arnold finally admits that he's poor a sudden wave of relieve wash over him, he had no more secrets he had left to keep. When Penelope starts crying he is astonished, as the text states. "She started to cry. FOR ME!" (Alexie, 129) He had never experienced someone being sympathetic to him. Arnold decides at the end of the day he made the right decision to tell Penelope that he's poor.
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