Freddy Gray Character Analysis

Freddy Gray is one of the narrator’s new friends in the neighborhood. Along with J.D., the three teenage boys form a “bunch.” Their relationships to each other are still childish: they are “still young enough” that they need the bunch to feel secure, rather than acting independently as adults, and they are not able to communicate about the dynamics “under the surface” of their relationship. One of these dynamics is that the narrator is new to their rural community, having moved from town, so the two boys don’t totally trust him yet. Before the narrator steals the watermelon, Freddy Gray seems to be the unofficial leader of the group. He speaks with more authority than the others, and he is the first one to jump in the water when they go swimming. He is also the one to challenge the narrator to steal the watermelon. Afterwards, though, the narrator assumes leadership of the group, as he digs into the watermelon first and then graciously offers that the two others “help themselves” to his stolen prize. In this way, the narrator wins himself more belonging in the group by stealing the watermelon, although that belonging comes with the steep price of shared guilt for their actions.