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.