In Mexican Whiteboy by Matt de la Peña, I have noticed some patterns in the main character's (Danny's) habits. When Danny gets stressed, uncomfortable, nervous or any emotion that is the opposites of joy, excitement, and comfort he starts to dig his fingernails into his arm. In the book it said that Danny did this to remind himself that he was a real person.
Danny's father Javier, left him going on four years ago. All Danny wanted when he was little was to get attention from his Dad. Whenever his dad and him were watching TV and his Dad said "Put on whatever you want." he would flip through the channels and watch his father's facial expressions out of the corner of his eyes to see what he looked interested in. Danny's father had a MAJOR anger problem, he caught one guy hitting on his now former wife Wendy and beat him within and inch of his life. He pummeled the guy so hard that blood was flying through the air and you could hear the punches landing. Javier was arrested that day and soon after disappeared without a word to Ensenada, Mexico.
Danny has been thinking a lot about his father, wondering why he left him. He often thinks that he is the reason but he didn't realize that his father's temper reached to far when he violently put his hands on Wendy. Danny's father's little brother Ray Lopez has followed in Javier's footsteps up until a certain point where he draws the line. That line is hitting his women, but Ray doesn't take ANYTHING from anybody. If somebody does something to Ray they pay back the price a million times worse. For example; A man on a motorcycle clipped Ray's Bronco and knocked off the side view mirror. When Ray realized this he made a dangerous U-turn in the middle of traffic and sped off towards the guy. The man dismounted his bike and started walking towards the Bronco, when he was standing directly in front of the hood he ran him over. Danny was horrified at this and had a traumatic effect, they pummeled the guy so bad that blood was splattered on Danny in the back and seat, Ray and his two friends. It ran down the windshield, the steering wheel, the leather seats, and pooled in the car floor. Then Ray knocked the guy out the window and backed over both of his legs, crushing them and the speeding off. Danny described in this scene that he could see the crazy look in his uncle's eyes that his dad had in his eyes when he was beating up the man. Danny claimed that he could actually see his father standing there joining in on the action as well.
I say all of this to say I think that Danny has been exposed to A LOT in his child hood, that your normal everyday child isn't exposed to. I think that this is why Danny is so quiet and solemn. I also think that there are some things to Danny's background that have yet to have been shown to the readers and that it will all make sense in the end.
I think that whenever a certain event takes place that reminds Danny in the smallest way about another important, scary, scarring event that took place in Danny's child hood he feels like he is being sucked back into that specific time and he digs his nails into his arm self consciously to remind himself that he's still in the present.
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