Chapter 3: Fighter

This chapter focuses around Billy Giles. He is a man with a family to maintain. Unfortunately, he doesn't make a lot. His wife, Johnnie Mae, takes care of their baby. We learn that Billy Giles is a fighter and his wife is 100% percent against it. The book states, "If he'd told her the truth, that he was going to fight again, he knew she would have cried." (27) The chapter starts off with Billy leaving and promising his wife ice cream. He goes to an arena where he meets Manny. Manny is the man Billy fights for. His opponent was Jimmy Walls. Before and during the fight, Billy remembers certain occasions. The narrator goes from the present to memories with Johnnie Mae, indicating that Billy was not there mentally. The first memory was when Billy got dizzy and how she was worried about him. Johnnie Mae suspected it was the boxing and got angry. Billy reasoned with himself that it was about the money. The second memory was during the fight when Jimmy was beating him. It was about when he was with Johnnie Mae. She told him he could go back to school. However, he remember when he was in Junior High School how his counselor basically told him that school is hard. He didn't go back. Then he remembered wasting money on a TV set for Johnnie Mae. Each time he was remembering, he was getting beaten by Jimmy. He lost the fight. After leaving the arena, he went home and Johnnie Mae saw that he had lost. She didn't say anything, but cleaned his face. This chapter talks about Billy and how he deals with situation with his wife and boxing.