The book starts off with Arnie and Dennis driving around their town. Arnie then tell Dennis to turn around and go back. He saw a car, specifically a 1958 plymouth Fury. It was owned by Roland Lebay who wanted 250 dollars for her, it was always a woman to him, as it would be for Arnie. As Lebay and Arnie were talking Dennis wend over and sat in the car, as he did he got a very strange and evil felling from it that he did not like. Within a couple of days Arnie bought the car, when he told his parents they were hysterical and did not want him to have it. Arnie was always the "good kid" and never spoke back. However this time he blew up at his parents and told them that they could not control if he bought a car with his own money. Lebay dies shortly after Arnie bought the car so Dennis and Arnie went to the funeral. After the funeral Dennis meets with Lebay's brother George. He tells him about Christine, Roland Lebay's only child died in a car crash in it when it was very young. After this his wife was very depressed and distant and Lebay refuses to sell Christine. Eventually his wife kills herself by attaching a hose to Christine's exhaust pipe and leaving the car running and puts the other end of the hose in the house. This still dose not get Lebay to sell the car, but he did leave it in his garage untended for years. Buddy Repperton dislikes Arnie because he got him kicked out of the garage that he worked for. This was because Buddy had tried to beat Arnie up. However Buddy was not done with Arnie. One day during lunch at school he picked a fight with Arnie, but this time brought a switch blade and two friends. After Dennis came over to help Arnie they were able to not get hurt. Buddy got hurt in a different way he was expelled from school. Arnie always had a horrible complexion and his face was riddled with pimples and the scars they left. Ever since he bought Christine his face seemed to look better and better. With this looking up for him he finally got a date, Leigh Cabot, who had just recently transferred to Libertyville and did not know Arnie when his looks were not on par. This surprises the whole school as Leigh is on of the best looking girls in the school. When she initially meets Arnie and rides in Christine she hates it from the beginning. She is almost jealous of the car. This is because Arnie spends almost all of his free time fixing up the car. Another reason is that when Arnie is around the car he is a different person.
Throughout the book Arnie becomes more and more attached to Christine. He is spending all of his money on the car and Leigh. Even when Arnie first bought the car and was driving it to a garage he had almost no patience. One of the tires went flat and was very amendment on wanting new tires, that were very expensive, and rims instead of retreads. When Dennis goes to check on how Arnie is getting along with fixing the car he finds Arnie's method of redoing it strange. When he sees the car only half of the grill is new, there is a new antenna, half of the lights are replaced, there is a new exhaust system, and only one seat is reupholstered. This is very unusual for Arnie who is a very organised person. He becomes so attached to Christine that his parents offer to buy him a brand new car if he sells Christine. He obviously declines this offer. When Reapperton attacks Arnie the first time Arnie defends himself when he would usually let the bully take advantage of him. All of these changes in his personality are due to him owning Christine, which is changing him for the worse.
Wow! I love how attached Arnie is to Christine, the car, but it I think Arnie is taking it too far. I understand Arnieś love of cool and fast cars because I admire sports cars as well. I can see how Arnie will most likely never sell the car unless under the circumstances there is no other choice. This is very interesting book that I now want to read. Great job with the analysis!
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