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8. Ookabooka Land
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Look Both Ways, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Perspective and Assumptions
Independence, Freedom, and Identity
Joy, Resilience, and Childhood
Fear, Friendship, and Support
Bullying
Summary
Analysis
Gregory Pitts’s friends—Remy Vaughn, Joey Santiago, and Candace Green—love him so much that today, they tell him the truth. The truth is that he stinks like he’s dead. And today Gregory cannot stink, so his friends, desperate to help him, intervene. Today is “a day of romance.”
Gregory clearly has honest, supportive friends if they’re willing to tell him such a difficult truth to help him presumably win over his crush. However, Cynthia has been teasing Gregory for some time because he smells, so perhaps Gregory only agrees to take action about it when his close friends tell him.
Themes
Before they begin, Joey asks if Candace is okay—her cousin, Bryson, was beaten up yesterday. Candace says Bryson is fine and anyway, since they’re walking near his house, she’s going to stop in and see him when they’re done. This settled, Remy says that first, they have to make Gregory smell better. He says he has “the stuff,” and Gregory asks why his friends are talking about it like this. But he adds that he doesn’t really care, as long as it works. Joey says it’ll work as Remy digs a can of body spray out of his backpack. According to his brother, Justin, it’s “deodorant for your whole body.” Remy sprays Gregory from head to toe, spinning him. The spray smells like burnt flowers and burnt rubber, but it’s better than what Gregory normally smells like.
Again, the kids in the various stories are all connected; Bryson was beaten up in “Call of Duty.” But at the same time as that much sadder story is taking place, this much happier and more humorous story is unraveling alongside it. And this passage (and the story) are so funny because Gregory and his friends are very earnest about their project to fix Gregory’s smell—this is deadly serious to them. But body sprays don’t do much when applied on top of body odor, so it’s doubtful that Gregory’s friends are actually going to be able to help him improve his hygiene.
Themes
Ms. Wockley shouts at Remy to stop spraying; spraying isn’t allowed in school. She’s frustrated because kids are always spraying perfume or cologne in the hallways, and it always makes the stench worse. Gregory, though, is a special case, and Ms. Wockley’s anger is funny enough to make Gregory, Candace, Remy, and Joey all laugh. They all mock her, Gregory chokes, and they begin to walk away from the school.
The omniscient narrator here reiterates that the sprays kids tend to use never help—another indicator that perhaps the crew’s methods are misguided. But they’re on a mission, and since school is out, they don’t feel like they have to listen to Ms. Wockley anyway. The short period of time when they’re totally free from adults has begun.
Themes
Normally, Gregory, Remy, Joey, and Candace head for the Southview Apartments, but today they’re walking to Sandra White’s house on Rogers Street. Gregory has been trying to work himself up to telling Sandra he likes her and asking if he can be her boyfriend. He hates how that sounds—he’d rather they just be “together”—but his friends don’t care about the terminology. They’re just here to support him, beginning by making sure he doesn’t smell awful. Candace is also the only one who knows where Sandra lives, since they used to be close when they were kids.
The story again drives home just how supportive Gregory’s friends are of him. It either hasn’t occurred to them or they don’t care that Gregory dating Sandra might put distance between the friends—all they care about is doing whatever it takes to help Gregory achieve his dreams. And to do this, they have to help Gregory change his perspective and realize that his natural aroma isn’t going to impress a girl. The final aside about Candace being the only one who knows where Sandra lives is also humorous, but it highlights again that Gregory can’t do this on his own.
Themes
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Remy drops one of his hallmark corny lines—that he hit Gregory with “ooh,” and now Gregory is ready for “some la la.” He always says stuff like this because Justin has told him this is how you win girls. Candace has been trying to tell him otherwise without success. Candace jokes that Gregory stinks, but really, Gregory does smell better. So now it’s time for Candace to impress on Gregory “the importance of moisturizing.” She pulls out a massive bottle of lotion, and Gregory’s eyes go wide with fear. As Ms. Post ushers the group across Portal Avenue, Candace explains that she stole the lotion from her mom.
Recall that in “Call of Duty,” the narrator suggested that Remy would be cool if he only stopped trying so hard. Here, the story explains why he’s trying so hard: he clearly admires his older brother and takes everything Justin says as fact. But while this might make Remy feel close to his brother, it just backfires as far as everyone else is concerned. Candace tries to do the same thing for Remy as she does for Gregory and help him learn how to actually impress a girl, but Remy is far less interested in taking her advice.
Themes
Once they’re across the street, Candace asks Gregory, Remy, and Joey to stop; she can’t “walk and lotion at the same time.” She pumps enough lotion into her hand to fill her entire palm and then grabs Gregory’s right hand. She works her way from his hand, up his forearm, and then stops at his elbow. She says that elbows are very important. He doesn’t want Sandra to think that his arm is going to break in half because it’s so dry, does he? Gregory says that won’t happen, but Joey and Remy say nothing, so he asks again. Joey says “wow,” and Remy scoffs that he’s heard stories of “dry boys” breaking up into paint chips when they try to be romantic. Candace reiterates that elbows are important and attacks Gregory’s elbow. Then she lotions Gregory’s other arm.
Candace is essentially trying to get Gregory to understand that he’ll be more attractive to Sandra if he looks like he takes care of his body, such as by using lotion. However, things again take a humorous turn when Joey and Remy state that “dry boys” literally crumble if they try to be romantic without moisturizing first. This is particularly true when Gregory seems at first to believe that Sandra might actually fear his arm will break in half. This highlights his youth and his inexperience with romance, as well as how much he trusts his friends to tell him the truth.
Themes
Gregory pulls away once Candace is done with his elbow. The attention is embarrassing, and people are staring. However, he does feel different; his fingers feel like they’ve just had casts come off. Candace says she’s not done yet, making Gregory squawk. Remy says talking to Sandra won’t do any good if Gregory’s arms are shiny, but his face looks like chalk attacked him. Agreeing, Candace fills her hand with lotion again and then slaps the lotion onto Gregory’s cheeks. She massages his whole face and then his earlobes (which confuses even Remy and Joey, but they trust Candace and say nothing).
Gregory wants to feel somewhat in control of his afternoon by rejecting more lotion, though he also can’t ignore how much better the lotion makes his hands feel. His friends’ insistence on making him look good and on moisturizing his face highlights how much they genuinely care about his success. Helping him is fun and humorous, and they want Gregory to succeed—if only because this is wildly entertaining.
Themes
Just then, a school bus pulls up and a boy drops his window. The boy shouts that Candace is never going to be able to rub Gregory’s face off. Candace retorts that this is a good thing, since Gregory’s face might look like the boy’s underneath. Remy insults the boy too and Joey searches for a rock to throw, but the bus pulls away before he finds one. Candace polishes Gregory’s forehead for another few minutes and then says he looks “not bad.”
Though Gregory’s friends have been very kind and good-natured about pointing out Gregory’s flaws, the boy on the bus engages in cruel bullying by insulting Gregory. Again, though, Gregory’s friends step up to defend him in various ways, so the bully’s cruelty doesn’t end up ruining Gregory’s afternoon.
Themes
Gregory nervously asks if he’s ready now, but Joey says there’s one more thing: Gregory needs something for his lips. Gregory backs away, shocked, but Candace says that chapped lips are disgusting. Joey asks what will happen if they get to Sandra’s house, Gregory tells her everything, and then Sandra asks for a kiss? Candace interjects that Sandra won’t do that, but she might think about kissing Gregory one day if it looks like he takes care of himself. Remy teases Gregory about getting his first kiss as though he’s kissed girls (he hasn’t).
Candace, Joey, and Remy again come together to teach Gregory what they see as an inarguable truth: that chapped lips aren’t going to get him anywhere with Sandra. This causes Gregory to look differently at his body and to consider how a love interest might see him, which is also part of growing up and becoming sexually mature. And Remy continues to try to make himself seem cool by pretending to be more mature and experienced than his friends.
Themes
Joey starts to say that Gregory won’t be kissed with as awful as his lips look right now, but Candace cuts him off. She tells Gregory to stop licking his lips. It’s nasty and makes him smell like spit, which makes the body odor stench even worse, and as his friend and a girl who likes boys, she needs Gregory to know it’s a dealbreaker. Gregory thanks Candace for her honesty as Joey pulls out a plastic baggie filled with goop. He says he took it from his mom’s room, but he couldn’t take the whole container or she’d kill him. And he couldn’t risk dying before Gregory gets his kiss.
Candace is again tasked with sharing some difficult truths with Gregory here: the way he’s grooming himself isn’t cutting it, and if he continues as he has been, he’s never going to get a girlfriend. However adult Gregory might think he is as he prepares to ask a girl out for the first time, Joey’s aside about not wanting to give his mom a reason to kill him reminds readers that these characters are just kids, which makes their serious preparations even funnier.
Themes
Gregory asks if he really has to use all the goop. Both Candace and Remy say no, and Joey warns that this is medicated, so Gregory should be careful. He opens the bag and a menthol smell wafts out. Gregory says if it’s medicated it should be good for him, and he starts rubbing a huge glob on his lips. Joey’s jaw drops, and a second later, Gregory’s eyes water. He says it burns. Remy snatches the bag and sniffs it. He offers it to Candace, who asks if Joey seriously gave Gregory VapoRub. Joey says his mother didn’t have Vaseline, but the VapoRub has Vaseline in it so it’s the same. Remy says his mom puts VapoRub on his chest when he’s sick and it makes his body cold, but Joey confirms that Remy’s chest is indeed greasy afterward. Candace reiterates that VapoRub and Vaseline are not the same.
As far as Gregory knows, anything medicated is good—a sign of his innocence and inexperience. The scene becomes even funnier with the revelation that Gregory just smeared too much mentholated VapoRub on his lips, especially when Joey shares his reasoning for choosing to bring VapoRub. The point, he reasons, is to make one’s lips “greasy”—but as Gregory’s tears suggest, that’s not actually the goal of lip balm, and using it shouldn’t make a person cry. This comedy of errors is funny, but the situation again emphasizes that Gregory’s friends are fully committed to helping him. They’re not experienced with romance themselves, though, so their advice is perhaps not the best.
Themes
Gregory, meanwhile, says “burning” over and over as Candace and Remy fan his mouth. Joey and Remy teasingly remind Gregory of his goal: Sandra. After a few minutes the group continues on, reminding Gregory the whole way of how great he is and assuring him Sandra will love him. Finally, they all stop in front of Sandra’s house. Remy, Candace, and Joey hang back, and Gregory pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket. He approaches Sandra’s house, rings the doorbell, and then runs back down the steps. Candace told him girls don’t like guys in their space. She nudges him forward again.
Now that Gregory has been made over, it’s time to actually go speak to Sandra. His friends continue to build him up and remind him that he can do this, and he shows how much he’s taking their advice to heart when he runs back down the steps so as to not crowd Sandra. Gregory reads as humorously young and innocent, though. Candace clearly thinks he’s taking her advice way too far.
Themes
Sandra opens the door, clearly confused. Gregory’s eyes are still watering thanks to his burning lips, so her sweatshirt with a pattern of yellow rectangles on a blue background looks like school buses falling from the sky. She greets the group and Remy prompts Gregory. Candace says Gregory has something to say. At this, Gregory unfolds his paper and reads that it’s good that Sandra always gets questions right in class. She never says anything bad about him to his face, so could he have her phone number? Candace, Joey, Remy, and Gregory exchange looks: they can’t believe Gregory actually did it.
The falling school buses again show readers the power of perspective: it’s Gregory’s burning and watering eyes that make Sandra’s sweatshirt, which actually has nothing to do with school buses, look this way. Gregory’s friends realize that their support and help paid off, as Gregory actually worked up the courage to speak to Sandra. However, Gregory’s note also suggests that he’s bullied often at school. Saying that Sandra never says anything bad to his face suggests that plenty of kids are mean to his face—and he’s aware that many others are mean behind his back.
Themes
Sandra walks right to Gregory. Her nose twitches and Gregory’s shiny forehead seems to almost blind her. She asks what he’s doing looking like he’s blowing kisses (he’s pursing his lips due to the VapoRub). His voice breaking, Gregory says his lips are burning. He says he put VapoRub on his lips, but when Sandra asks why, he says that’s hard to explain. Gregory says it's also hard to explain why he’s greasy and why he smells like he does. She asks him to try. At this, Gregory starts to read from his paper again. He’s shaking. But when he glances up, Sandra is smiling. Maybe it’s the kind of smile that means she’s going to laugh—or maybe not.
Sandra’s reaction to Gregory’s makeover suggests that Candace, Remy, and Joey might have been a bit off base in what they had Gregory do. And now, even though his friends are still behind him, Gregory is on his own and has to figure out by himself how to respond to Sandra. Leaving Sandra’s response ambiguous highlights that all the prep in the world doesn’t mean that Sandra has to respond in a particular way. And for now, it’s up to Gregory and the reader to decide whether she’s going to laugh at him or accept his invitation.
Themes
