Identity

Throughout the novel, the author uses Beauregard's struggles to reconcile the competing versions of his identity to explore the ways in which the individual's sense of self might control his life. When Beauregard is a young man, he is "sentenced to five years in juvie for involuntary manslaughter" (129). In the years following his release he tries to put his former life of crime behind him. Despite his marriage to Kia, his relationship with his children, and his work at Montage Motors, however, Beauregard constantly feels torn between warring halves of his interior. As Boonie says in Chapter 10 of his and Anthony's lives, "Man can't be two types of beasts" (78). Despite Beauregard's awareness that this is indeed true, he constantly finds himself living between these bestial identities. He wants to be the ethical and upright husband, father, and son. He is completely disinterested in being anything like...