Chapter 3

10/25/2012

The Blind Side by Michael Lewis

Chapter 3 (pages 39-65) - Crossing the Line

The third chapter of The Blind Side involved more back story about Michael Oher. Michael is also commonly known as Big Mike. The Tuohy family is also introduced. Sean Tuohy is the father and he is known as an All-American success story. He grew up poor and played basketball at Ole Miss. He became their all time leader in career assists. He was also drafted into the NBA but decided not to go and now he owns over eighty-five fast food restaurants including Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut and Long John Silver’s. He also married his high school sweetheart Leigh Anne Tuohy. The couple gave birth to two children; and they also adopted Michael Oher. The oldest is Collins Tuohy and the youngest is Sean Tuohy Jr.

            I found this quote referring to Leigh Ann Tuohy and her first few encounters with Big Mike. “She noticed things about him. She noticed, for instance, that he wore the same pair of cutoff jeans every day, and that he hadn’t the first idea how to interact with other people.” This states that Michael was very poor, and he was socially awkward. People were afraid of him because of his size, and he was afraid of them because they had confidence or more money. The Blind Side is based on a true story and the Tuohy does take Michael in and adopt him. The chapter also mentioned that Sean Tuohy had previously helped kids who went to Briarcrest. However, the Tuohy family had never gone as far to help someone to the extent of adoption.

            The narrator states that the Tuohy family was all incredible athletes but they also were dedicated to school and have all gone to college. Sean went to Ole Miss to play basketball and run track. Leigh Ann also went to Ole Miss and she was a cheerleader. Collins plays volleyball and track. Sean Jr. is also going to go to college to play basketball just like his father. I connected to this because I believe that families should be equal between athletics and academics. I have pretty good grades at the beginning of my sophomore year and I plan on going to college. However, I currently run both cross country and track but I don’t plan on doing either in college.