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Lefty Lewis
Bugs is Bud Caldwell’s best friend at the Home. Everyone calls him Bugs because of an unfortunate incident involving a cockroach that got stuck in his ear. Bugs, like Bud, is looking to escape Flint and free himself of his orphan status. He recruits Bud to leave Flint with him on a train heading west. Through their planning, Bud begins to think of Bugs as his brother, highlighting the growing importance of chosen family in Bud’s life. The two boys run away together and discover a community of people in Hooverville who are also looking to make a better life for themselves with what little they have. Though Bugs is able to get on the train and Bud isn’t, Bud is able to get a taste of what it means to have a family through Bugs’s companionship.
Bugs Quotes in Bud, Not Buddy
The Bud, Not Buddy quotes below are all either spoken by Bugs or refer to Bugs. 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:
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Chapter 8 Quotes
“I’m sorry, Bud, I didn’t mean to scare you, but everybody knows how you like to sleep with that knife open so I figured I’d best grab holt of you so’s you wouldn’t wake up slicing nobody.”
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I spit a big glob in my hand and said, “We’re brother forever, Bugs!”
We slapped our hands together as hard as we could and got our slobs mixed up real good, then waved them in the air so they’d dry. Now it was official, I finally had a brother!
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The train and my new pretend brother got farther and farther away, chugging to Chicago. Man. I’d found some family and he was gone before we could really get to know each other.
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Bugs Character Timeline in Bud, Not Buddy
The timeline below shows where the character Bugs appears in Bud, Not Buddy. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3
Bud thinks about what happened to his best friend, Bugs, at the Home after a cockroach crawled into his ear. Adults had only managed to...
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Chapter 8
...I’m really sorry about jumping on you like this.” From that, Bud realizes it is Bugs.
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Bud eventually makes Bugs get off him and tries to catch his breath. He realizes that Bugs is on...
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Bud asks questions about Bugs’s plans to catch a train the following day, go out West, and pick fruit to...
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After Bugs explains everything from sleeping to peeing on the train to his friend, Bud excitedly agrees...
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Bugs and Bud flip a coin to see who should ask for food. Bud loses, and...
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Bugs appears from behind the tree and the man tells them to look around at Hooverville....
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The mouth-organ man invites Bugs and Bud to eat as long as they agree to pitch in by serving on...
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Bud notices that he, Bugs, a girl, and a little white boy will be doing the dishes. The girl is...
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They reunite with Bugs and his dishwashing partner and begin walking back. They pass the group of white people...
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...retrieves his suitcase and is happy to see it hasn’t been tampered with. Bud and Bugs go to sleep to prepare for tomorrow. Bugs falls asleep quickly, but Bud can’t. Instead,...
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...“they’re trying to sneak it out early.” Bud runs outside and someone tells him and Bugs that the train is “trying to sneak out before [they] get up.” Bugs urges Bud...
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When they get to the train, Bud tries to find Bugs and pushes through the front of the crowd; however, he realizes that people have stopped...
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...engine gets louder and the crowd rushes to the train. Bud starts running and sees Bugs. He throws him his suitcase, but the flyer falls. It lands in Bud’s hand and...
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Chapter 9
...some just have drawings with names. After putting the flyers back, Bud exclaims that like Bugs, he “was going west!”
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