While this is going on, another emotional thread in the book follows the protagonist's struggles with his own sexual orientation, describing his feelings for another male character, which he denies and represses for fear of being "abnormal," even joining in with his classmates to bully a "sissy-boy" classmate and resorting to violence to prove his manhood.
同時，書中另一條情節線則沿著主角對自己性別傾向的摸索過程展開，描寫主角對一個男同學產生好感，卻又怕自己「不正常」而極力否認、壓抑，甚至與其他同學聯手欺負班上的「娘娘腔」同學，訴諸暴力來證明自己的男子氣概。