Life Can Be Quite Tough At Times During Those Times You Have

Life can be quite tough at times. During those times you have the choice to survive or thrive, which can both be very hard. In the novel Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud is a 10-year-old boy whose mother died when he was six and his father left them. Bud was put into the foster care system, hopping from house to house including abusive homes like the Amos family. In the end he ran away and was still orphaned.

To make his life easier to survive he came up with Bud Caldwell’s rules and things for having a funner life and making a better liar out of yourself. Bud lived during the great depression as well, more the reason for Bud to use his rules. Bud uses his rules to survive as the protagonist and main character of the book.

In chapter 12 of the novel we are introduced Bud’s rule number eight as he is being told to listen very carefully to what Lefty Lewis says.

Rule number eight is as follows Whenever an adult say listen carefully and talks to you in a real calm voice, do not listen, run as fast as you can because something real terrible is just around the corner. Especially if the cops are chasing you. Bud used rule number eight to survive. For example, when this rule was introduced, him and Lewis were being pulled over by the cops. Suddenly a siren went off sounding like it was in the backseat of the car.

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Bud was trying to convince himself to grab his suitcase and run while Lefty talked to the cop. OK, I told myself I’ma count to 10, then grab my suitcase, and book for those buildings.

In chapter 13 of the novel Bud tells us rule number 63 as he’s talking about Mr. Calloway and accidently said something bad about him in front of the band members. Rule number 63 is; Never ever say something bad about someone you don’t know- especially when you’re surrounded by a bunch of strangers. You never know who might be kin to that person r who might be a lip-flapping big-mouth spy. Bud used the rule a little late after calling Mr. Calloway a mean old coot but he managed to cover his mouth and not say any more. I slapped my hand over my mouth, I knew better than saying something like this out loud but it just fell out of my mouth before I could swallow it down.

In chapter 15 Bud tells us rule number 28 while him and Miss Thomas were talking. The rule is, Gone= Dead This rule came up because Miss Thomas said that a girl was gone. No Bud you don’t have to worry about that, she’s gone. Bud used his knowledge and instead of offending Miss Thomas by saying Gone? Where? Bud knew that gone means dead. He used this to survive because if he offended her, she might have kicked him out. Bud thinks to himself I don’t know why grown folks can’t say someone is dead, they think it’s a lot easier to say gone.

In conclusion Bud uses his rules to survive the foster care system, the loss of his family, and being alone on his own. Bud was called vermin and got abused in the Amos home, he traveled the country on his own. Buds rules helped him to survive his hard life and of course to find his grandfather and a home.