Trash

Trash

by

Andy Mulligan

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Trash makes teaching easy.

Raphael Fernández Character Analysis

A 14-year-old “trash boy” who lives on a landfill called Behala with his auntie and cousins. Like most of the other children in the landfill, Raphael and his best friend, Gardo, spends their days sifting through mountains of trash (which are mostly comprised of human excrement) searching for valuable items that they can sell for food. Raphael is prone to bouts of anxiety but he’s still relatively childlike and carefree in spite of his difficult life. Raphael’s life changes, however, when he discovers a bag belonging to a man named José Angelico, which contains clues to a stolen fortune. The city police brutally beat Raphael in an attempt to gain information about the fortune, but Raphael (though traumatized) doesn’t give up the bag because he feels solidarity with José Angelico, who was killed by police during Angelico’s own interrogation. Raphael—along with Gardo and another young boy from Behala named Rat—manages to stay one step ahead of the corrupt police force. Despite the boys’ lack of education, they’re able to outwit the police, find the stolen fortune, and distribute it in Behala for the poorest of the poor to find, just as José Angelico wished. Along with Gardo, Rat, and Pia Dante (José Angelico’s young orphaned daughter), Raphael escapes to a life on the beach, away from the stinking landfill.

Raphael Fernández Quotes in Trash

The Trash quotes below are all either spoken by Raphael Fernández or refer to Raphael Fernández. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Childhood, Poverty, and Injustice Theme Icon
).
Part 1: Chapter 1 Quotes

No, never—because what we mainly find is stupp.

Related Characters: Raphael Fernández (speaker)
Related Symbols: Trash
Page Number: 4
Explanation and Analysis:

Gardo’s my partner, and we always work together. He looks after me.

Related Characters: Raphael Fernández (speaker), Gardo
Related Symbols: Trash
Page Number: 7
Explanation and Analysis:

We get the fast food too, and that’s a little business in itself. It doesn’t come out near me and Gardo, it goes down the far end, and about a hundred kids sort out the straws, the cups, and the chicken bones. Everything turned, cleaned and bagged up – cycled down to the weighers, weighed and sold.

Related Characters: Raphael Fernández (speaker), Gardo
Related Symbols: Trash
Page Number: 14
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Chapter 4 Quotes

Trash is often wet, and the juices are always running. Maybe the ground here was a bit lower, I don’t know—but it was always muddy […] I got down low with the candle, trying not to breathe too deep because of the stink […] It might seem crazy asking a kid if you can come into his hole, but this hole was about the only thing Rat had, apart from what he wore. I would not have lived there – anywhere would have been better.

Related Characters: Raphael Fernández (speaker), Gardo, Rat / Jun / Jun-Jun, José Angelico
Related Symbols: Trash
Page Number: 25
Explanation and Analysis:

When Smoky Mountain went down, there were nearly a hundred killed, and everyone knows some of those poor souls are still down there, down with the trash, turned into trash, rotting with the trash.

Related Characters: Raphael Fernández (speaker), Gardo, Rat / Jun / Jun-Jun
Related Symbols: Trash
Page Number: 25
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Chapter 5 Quotes

On the other hand, I did not want Raphael hiding and drawing attention that way, so that’s why I kept him right in the middle of it.

Related Characters: Gardo (speaker), Raphael Fernández, Rat / Jun / Jun-Jun
Related Symbols: Trash
Page Number: 33
Explanation and Analysis:

Ten thousand is a lot of money!

Related Characters: Raphael’s auntie (speaker), Raphael Fernández, Gardo, Olivia Weston (Sister Olivia)
Page Number: 38
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Chapter 6 Quotes

I was told once about runaways, and it made me sick. How if a new kid shows up with nowhere to go, and the police get him—they wait till night, break his legs and put him on the tracks.

Related Characters: Raphael Fernández (speaker), Gardo, Rat / Jun / Jun-Jun
Page Number: 45
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: Chapter 2 Quotes

It sounds crazy, but there was some part of me sure I’d never found it, and some other part of me begging me not to give up—maybe for José Angelico, because we knew more about him now.

Related Characters: Raphael Fernández (speaker), Gardo, Rat / Jun / Jun-Jun, José Angelico , Tired man
Related Symbols: Trash
Page Number: 69
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3: Chapter 1 Quotes

When one of their number is hurt, everyone feels the wound.

Related Characters: Olivia Weston (Sister Olivia) (speaker), Raphael Fernández, Father Juilliard
Page Number: 85
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3: Chapter 3 Quotes

Behala also makes you want to weep, because it looks like an awful punishment that will never end – and if you have any imagination, you can see the child and what he is doomed to do for the rest of his life. When you see the old man, too weak to work, propped in a chair outside his shack, you think, That is Raphael in forty years. What could possibly change? These children are doomed to breathe the stink all day, all night, sifting the effluent of the city. Rats and children, children and rats, and you sometimes think they have pretty much the same life.

Related Characters: Olivia Weston (Sister Olivia) (speaker), Raphael Fernández, Gardo
Related Symbols: Trash
Page Number: 92
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4: Chapter 4 Quotes

Once again, the trash boys were ahead of the trash police.

Related Characters: Raphael Fernández (speaker), Gardo, Rat / Jun / Jun-Jun, Senor Zapanta (vice-president) , José Angelico , Gabriel Olondriz, Marco
Related Symbols: Trash
Page Number: 175
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4: Chapter 6 Quotes

Rat had been chased so often, and grabbed at so often, that he must have had extra senses.

Related Characters: Raphael Fernández (speaker), Gardo, Rat / Jun / Jun-Jun
Page Number: 179
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4: Chapter 7 Quotes

What was ten million dollars doing in your house, sir?

Related Characters: Mohun (speaker), Raphael Fernández, Gardo, Rat / Jun / Jun-Jun, Senor Zapanta (vice-president) , José Angelico , Gabriel Olondriz
Page Number: 188
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 5: Chapter 1 Quotes

We were amongst wealthy people in very fancy clothes, and we felt even greyer and dirtier, but there was nothing for it, and still nobody was worrying about us – no one seemed to see us, like we were ghosts.

Related Characters: Raphael Fernández (speaker), Gardo, Rat / Jun / Jun-Jun, Senor Zapanta (vice-president) , José Angelico
Page Number: 198
Explanation and Analysis:

And that is when we saw the brightest light.

Related Characters: Raphael Fernández (speaker), Gardo, Rat / Jun / Jun-Jun, Senor Zapanta (vice-president) , José Angelico , Pia Dante Angelico
Related Symbols: Brightest Light, Trash
Page Number: 198
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 5: Chapter 5 Quotes

I wanted to hang back and see what happened when the first trash boy of the morning hooked up—not a stupp, but a hundred dollar bill.

Related Characters: Rat / Jun / Jun-Jun (speaker), Raphael Fernández, Gardo, José Angelico , Pia Dante Angelico
Related Symbols: Trash
Page Number: 220
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Trash LitChart as a printable PDF.
Trash PDF

Raphael Fernández Quotes in Trash

The Trash quotes below are all either spoken by Raphael Fernández or refer to Raphael Fernández. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Childhood, Poverty, and Injustice Theme Icon
).
Part 1: Chapter 1 Quotes

No, never—because what we mainly find is stupp.

Related Characters: Raphael Fernández (speaker)
Related Symbols: Trash
Page Number: 4
Explanation and Analysis:

Gardo’s my partner, and we always work together. He looks after me.

Related Characters: Raphael Fernández (speaker), Gardo
Related Symbols: Trash
Page Number: 7
Explanation and Analysis:

We get the fast food too, and that’s a little business in itself. It doesn’t come out near me and Gardo, it goes down the far end, and about a hundred kids sort out the straws, the cups, and the chicken bones. Everything turned, cleaned and bagged up – cycled down to the weighers, weighed and sold.

Related Characters: Raphael Fernández (speaker), Gardo
Related Symbols: Trash
Page Number: 14
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Chapter 4 Quotes

Trash is often wet, and the juices are always running. Maybe the ground here was a bit lower, I don’t know—but it was always muddy […] I got down low with the candle, trying not to breathe too deep because of the stink […] It might seem crazy asking a kid if you can come into his hole, but this hole was about the only thing Rat had, apart from what he wore. I would not have lived there – anywhere would have been better.

Related Characters: Raphael Fernández (speaker), Gardo, Rat / Jun / Jun-Jun, José Angelico
Related Symbols: Trash
Page Number: 25
Explanation and Analysis:

When Smoky Mountain went down, there were nearly a hundred killed, and everyone knows some of those poor souls are still down there, down with the trash, turned into trash, rotting with the trash.

Related Characters: Raphael Fernández (speaker), Gardo, Rat / Jun / Jun-Jun
Related Symbols: Trash
Page Number: 25
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Chapter 5 Quotes

On the other hand, I did not want Raphael hiding and drawing attention that way, so that’s why I kept him right in the middle of it.

Related Characters: Gardo (speaker), Raphael Fernández, Rat / Jun / Jun-Jun
Related Symbols: Trash
Page Number: 33
Explanation and Analysis:

Ten thousand is a lot of money!

Related Characters: Raphael’s auntie (speaker), Raphael Fernández, Gardo, Olivia Weston (Sister Olivia)
Page Number: 38
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Chapter 6 Quotes

I was told once about runaways, and it made me sick. How if a new kid shows up with nowhere to go, and the police get him—they wait till night, break his legs and put him on the tracks.

Related Characters: Raphael Fernández (speaker), Gardo, Rat / Jun / Jun-Jun
Page Number: 45
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: Chapter 2 Quotes

It sounds crazy, but there was some part of me sure I’d never found it, and some other part of me begging me not to give up—maybe for José Angelico, because we knew more about him now.

Related Characters: Raphael Fernández (speaker), Gardo, Rat / Jun / Jun-Jun, José Angelico , Tired man
Related Symbols: Trash
Page Number: 69
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3: Chapter 1 Quotes

When one of their number is hurt, everyone feels the wound.

Related Characters: Olivia Weston (Sister Olivia) (speaker), Raphael Fernández, Father Juilliard
Page Number: 85
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3: Chapter 3 Quotes

Behala also makes you want to weep, because it looks like an awful punishment that will never end – and if you have any imagination, you can see the child and what he is doomed to do for the rest of his life. When you see the old man, too weak to work, propped in a chair outside his shack, you think, That is Raphael in forty years. What could possibly change? These children are doomed to breathe the stink all day, all night, sifting the effluent of the city. Rats and children, children and rats, and you sometimes think they have pretty much the same life.

Related Characters: Olivia Weston (Sister Olivia) (speaker), Raphael Fernández, Gardo
Related Symbols: Trash
Page Number: 92
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4: Chapter 4 Quotes

Once again, the trash boys were ahead of the trash police.

Related Characters: Raphael Fernández (speaker), Gardo, Rat / Jun / Jun-Jun, Senor Zapanta (vice-president) , José Angelico , Gabriel Olondriz, Marco
Related Symbols: Trash
Page Number: 175
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4: Chapter 6 Quotes

Rat had been chased so often, and grabbed at so often, that he must have had extra senses.

Related Characters: Raphael Fernández (speaker), Gardo, Rat / Jun / Jun-Jun
Page Number: 179
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4: Chapter 7 Quotes

What was ten million dollars doing in your house, sir?

Related Characters: Mohun (speaker), Raphael Fernández, Gardo, Rat / Jun / Jun-Jun, Senor Zapanta (vice-president) , José Angelico , Gabriel Olondriz
Page Number: 188
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 5: Chapter 1 Quotes

We were amongst wealthy people in very fancy clothes, and we felt even greyer and dirtier, but there was nothing for it, and still nobody was worrying about us – no one seemed to see us, like we were ghosts.

Related Characters: Raphael Fernández (speaker), Gardo, Rat / Jun / Jun-Jun, Senor Zapanta (vice-president) , José Angelico
Page Number: 198
Explanation and Analysis:

And that is when we saw the brightest light.

Related Characters: Raphael Fernández (speaker), Gardo, Rat / Jun / Jun-Jun, Senor Zapanta (vice-president) , José Angelico , Pia Dante Angelico
Related Symbols: Brightest Light, Trash
Page Number: 198
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 5: Chapter 5 Quotes

I wanted to hang back and see what happened when the first trash boy of the morning hooked up—not a stupp, but a hundred dollar bill.

Related Characters: Rat / Jun / Jun-Jun (speaker), Raphael Fernández, Gardo, José Angelico , Pia Dante Angelico
Related Symbols: Trash
Page Number: 220
Explanation and Analysis: