Trash is a novel written by Andy Mulligan. It’s a story
about 3 boys named Raphael, Gardo and Rat . The story is based in the
Philippines, Behala, where Raphael finds a bag while working in the dumpsite,
inside the bag was a wallet, key and map. After the Evening police officers
came to the dumpsite and money to everyone in Behala money if they found a bag
which Raphael found. Raphael is smart and knows not to trust the cops and lie
to them. Later Raphael, Gardo and Rat get on a train to the train station, to
avoid the dangers of the guards and porters they jumped of early. After paying
the subway boys they go find a locker where the key fit, inside the locker they
found a envelope which is suppose to be sent to a prison to Gabriel Olondiz.
It’s a mystery, who is this guy Gabriel Olondiz, why is he in prison? What do
the codes mean?
One of the themes in Trash is Police Corruption and
violence. An Example of this is when Raphael says “when police get mean, you
don’t want to be around”(page 29). This means that the police can be violent if
they became angry. Another example is in when the police officer said “We are
going to pay anyone who wants work. One day, one week- however long it takes to
find that bag we’ll pay to find it (page 13) this means that the police would
take advantage of a poor persons desire for their own personal gain.
The second theme of the book is the dangers of poverty. An
example is when Raphael said “we jumped early because you don’t ever want to be
seen getting off the train. If guards of even porters see you, you can get a
real thrashing” (page 39). By this he means that the boys are in danger of
being beaten up by the guards if they are caught, as people who work on the
dumpsite are not welcome on the trains. Another example is on page 40, where
Raphael said “Boys like us opening luggage lockers? It wouldn’t have to be the
police. It would be anyone who noticed. They’d assume right away that we where
thieving, and thieving boys get not mercy from anyone.