Therefore, to understand the story, we must first understand Rudy to some degree. This is why the very first paragraph of the book is so prescient.
"My decision to become a lawyer was irrevocably sealed when I realized my father hated the legal profession. I was a young teenager, clumsy, embarrassed by my awkwardness, frustrated with life, horrified of puberty, and about to be shipped off to military school by my father for insubordination. He was an ex-Marine who thought that boys should live by the crack of the whip. I"d developed a quick tongue and an aversion to discipline, and his solution was simply to send me away. It was years before I forgave him." (1).
This one paragraph gives great insight into the background of the narrator as well a look into his personality. The reader is given a lot of information in this one paragraph that will shape his or her understanding of upcoming events as they unfold. The first observation that the reader makes about the storyteller is that he has a rebellious streak. This is exemplified by his decision to choose the legal profession solely because his father, a symbol of authority to the young Rudy, held a profound dislike for lawyers. The reader also sees that Rudy has problems dealing with that authority and possibly an inability to see a situation through the eyes of what he perceives as the enemy. The reader is also shown that the hero of this story can hold a grudge, illustrated by his refusal to forgive his own father for years after being sent to military school. All of these factors will prove important later in the story and it is imperative that the reader understands these things in order to better identify with the narrator in his upcoming struggles. The first person point of view as used in this story makes not identifying with Rudy almost impossible. In becoming one with the storyteller, Rudy's fight becomes the reader's fight, his setbacks, the reader's setbacks, and his eventual victory, the reader's victory.