Peer pressure is an extremely odd and erratic behaviour that is commonplace in teenagers.. Bifocal showcases this, and many questionable and moral-defying behaviours throughout the book. From cocky footballers to nerdy brown kids and then to unacceptable police practices, this book has it all. However, this essay will prove that one of the main characters, Jay, was never like Kevin or the other footballers. This can be seen through the vandalism of Brown Town, Jay noticing and talking to Zana about wearing a niqab, and through the vandalism and property damage to Haroon’s house and family. The vandalism of Brown Town was a major turning point in the book that was fuelled by hate. Jay was a participant in this situation, and was not influenced …show more content…
Zana choosing to wear a niqab is especially important as she runs into the footballers quite often. The other footballers have disrespected women in niqabs, unlike Jay. Such that in page 187 (Ellis and Walters), Jay tries to identify someone in a niqab who we later find is Zana. It is shown here that Jay attempts to look beyond what is worn by the person which is quite the opposite to what the other footballers have done previously. Jay also attempts to avoid discussing Zana’s niqab in page 188 (Ellis and Walters). This is a point where it can be seen that Jay does not want to bring up the niqab because he does not want to make it so the niqab changes his view of Zana. Kevin did not care about anything but the niqab and purposely brought it up. Then, on page 189-191 (Ellis and Walters), Jay talks to her as a person as opposed to Kevin who calls her a “Sand Monkey”. Jay does not want to associate the niqab with Zana, and he did not want to identify her as a brown person who wears a niqab. Meanwhile, Kevin sees these and connects them together to insult her with the term “Sand Monkey”. Kevin and the other footballers jump to insults and behaviours, as opposed to Jay, who avoids …show more content…
Kevin and the other footballers turned out to be the kind of people that would be willing to go that far. But throughout the ordeal, Jay was having concerns. Such as on page 234 (Ellis and Walters) while Kevin is spray painting, Jay is wondering why if Kevin vandalized Brown Town, unlike the other footballers. Jay sees through Kevin as his friend to be able to make this claim. This takes a level of honesty and neutrality much more than his teammates could have possibly had, as none of them had this thought. Then on page 249 (Ellis and Walters), Jay is worried about the repercussions to Haroon and his family after learning they vandalized his house. Jay yet again, worries over things that affect the people he is not close to. His teammates were merely concerned with the fact that they may be in trouble after learning they caused property damage, as opposed to learning that it was the house of a fellow student at the school. Finally, the most important comparison is on page 267 (Ellis and Walters), where Jay offers to help Haroon clean his house; as opposed to the rest of the team who do nothing. Here, Jay seeks forgiveness for actions that he no doubt meant to do, even after explaining and apologizing over situation. Haroon had forgiven him, and Jay offers to help clean the house regardless of the fact that he was forgiven of his. Kevin, and the rest team did absolutely nothing in