Lawn Boy

Content Warning: This section quotes anti-gay slurs and racist comments from the text.

The protagonist, Mike Muñoz, recalls how a promotional video for Disneyland enchanted him when he was five. In particular, the park’s landscaping, carved in the shapes of the Disney characters Donald Duck, Pluto, and Mickey Mouse, fills him with a yearning to visit “the Happiest Place on Earth” (1). He pleads with his parents to take him there.

The chapter introduces Mike’s family. His father is described as only “sort of around” and as “unshaven, in a dirty T-shirt” (1, 2). Muñoz describes his mother as a chain smoker. Mike also has an older brother with mental disabilities.

One day, Mike’s father tells him to get in the car because they are going to Disneyland. Mike is excited and filled with expectations of magical fun. However, instead of driving him to Disneyland, his father takes him to an old naval shipyard in nearby Bremerton, Washington. They get out of the car. His father walks up to a chain-link fence around the naval yard and tells Mike that Disneyland must have moved.

Mike cries as he walks back to the car, filled with disappointment.