Through the first-person narrator, which is our main protagonist Arnie. The author helps the reader experience firsthand the effects of familial and social peer-pressure and gaslighting. The perpetrators of this behaviour are his aunts, his close friend Mandy and even the doctor. They emotionally manipulate the boy in hopes of him giving his heart to his mother, who just had a heart attack. His aunt Fran tells him “Arnie think about this: the heart’s a little thing, really. Less than a pound. It's just a muscle. You’ve got muscles all over the place, can’t you spare one? Can’t you spare a…