chapter five continues in the counter restaurant. Tom is 19 and didn't finish high school -- he was held back one year at some point. He ran away a week before graduation (he wasn't a very good student anyway), mostly because he didn't want to end up like the rest of his brothers: stuck in Big Flat, Ar. He took the family money (though he doesn't tell this to Dar until they are at her apartment, maybe after they've had sex and he is modeling for her painting) and hitchhiked around and ended up in Houston without much money left.
Dar is 20 -- barely a year older than Tom, and she is a junior at Rice University {this fact hasn't changed}. She comes from a completely different background but feels like she and Tom have some things in common -- not liking the constriction of their religious upbringings (hers, Catholic; his, Fundamentalist), being virgins {this is new}, wanting to make a difference in the world (she with painting/art; he unsure how).
Dar invites Tom back to her apartment to show him her paintings (because he's interested) and perhaps to get him high for the first time.
School is very important to Dar. At one point, she makes a comment about how Tom could/should get his GED and go to college -- "if only the University of Houston." He thinks this might be a good idea, but says he has to get a job first. Dar's father is in a management job at Exxon (or whatever it's called then -- or maybe Shell or Humble Oil) and she can help Tom get a job. All of these things play into the two of them ending up in her bed. {Maybe the title could/should be "november ___" (1968).
Dar is 20 -- barely a year older than Tom, and she is a junior at Rice University {this fact hasn't changed}. She comes from a completely different background but feels like she and Tom have some things in common -- not liking the constriction of their religious upbringings (hers, Catholic; his, Fundamentalist), being virgins {this is new}, wanting to make a difference in the world (she with painting/art; he unsure how).
Dar invites Tom back to her apartment to show him her paintings (because he's interested) and perhaps to get him high for the first time.
School is very important to Dar. At one point, she makes a comment about how Tom could/should get his GED and go to college -- "if only the University of Houston." He thinks this might be a good idea, but says he has to get a job first. Dar's father is in a management job at Exxon (or whatever it's called then -- or maybe Shell or Humble Oil) and she can help Tom get a job. All of these things play into the two of them ending up in her bed. {Maybe the title could/should be "november ___" (1968).
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