Historical context of the book; Bud not Buddy is set in the Great Depression era of the 1930s. Times were difficult in the United States and poverty dominated much of the country, citizens used to stand in long lines to eat every day, lines that could last up to four hours. Furthermore, racism and racial segregation against blacks were critical and blacks were abused even though slavery was abolished, black Americans continued to be marginalized. Access to facilities such as housing, education, and other opportunities was nearly impossible for Black Americans to obtain. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay By 1932, about half of black Americans were out of work, and racial violence was increasing significantly. The Great Depression lasted until the end of the 1930s, which means that the protagonist of this story had already suffered a good part, or rather a BAD part, of this terrible crisis, since early childhood. Bud Caldwell is a ten year old boy who loses his mother when he was only six years old. Bud is not a normal ten year old, at this age children think about playing with toy cars, running around their parents' yard or anything else a normal child did at this age. No, Bud wasn't thinking about playing because he had a purpose in his life, at this young age he already knew what he wanted to do and was hell-bent on finding his goal, and that goal was to find his father. Bud's personality was strong, determined, stubborn, a little silly and very, very imaginative but he was an almost professional liar, he lied whenever he could, but as a good liar he knew how to do it without problems. Life had taught him not to confide in almost any adult, much less if those adults were white. That's why he wrote a personal journal titled "Bud Caldwell Rules and Stuff" to have a more fun life and become a better liar. His mother never told him who his father was, but she left him a clue: flyers advertising Herman E. Calloway and his famous band, the Dusky Devastators of the Depression. Bud had the idea that those flyers would help him find his father, once he decided to start his journey and find this mysterious man, nothing could stop him, not fear, not hunger, not vampires, nothing. For the last four years Bud had been living in an orphanage, it wasn't an easy life but he could bear it. One day, in the morning, at the time of the breakfast queue, the director of the orphanage told him that they had found a foster home for him and another boy named Jerry Thomas. Bud would stay with the Amo family who had a twelve year old boy and Jerry would stay with a family with three little girls, Jerry was only six so he was scared of being the toy doll of three girls, it was horrible just thinking about it and he began to cry but tried to calm him down. This was the third time that year that Bud had gone to a foster home, so he has more experience than Jerry. Without waiting for breakfast, the manager gave them a bowl of fruit for each other and they got into the car that would take Bud to begin his long journey. The Amos family had this violent young boy they called Todd, Bud´ The welcome to the Amos' home was a severe beating from Todd, this violent teenager apparently had problems with violence and temper problems. Blood poured from Bud's nose and the worst part was that Todd was insatiable at seeing Bud suffer. This scene was one of the most shocking for me, it hurt me to read how Bud was kicked mercilessly, I really don't understand how.