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Part 3: Surgery
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The 57 Bus, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Gender and Sexuality
Adolescent Crime vs. Adult Crime
Binary Thought and Inclusive Language
Discrimination and Social Justice
Accountability, Redemption, and Forgiveness
Summary
Analysis
Slater again includes a conversation between Healy and Michael via text message. The have both spoken to Sasha, either by text or video call, and Michael texts: “Nemo and I are visiting him tomorrow / *them.” Healy then tells Michael that the whole school will be wearing skirts to school on Friday in solidarity for Sasha. They are planning on taking a school picture to present to them. As the conversation ends, Healy tells Michael that he hasn’t been able to sleep. “I mean, think about it,” Healy says, “they woke up and they were on fire.”
Like Debbie, Michael also occasionally messes up Sasha’s pronouns, but he tries to correct it, and this reflects his deep respect for Sasha and their gender identity. Furthermore, Healy’s inability to sleep suggests that there is a “ripple effect” to biased attacks as well. Healy isn’t directly hurt by Sasha’s attack, but he is clearly suffering indirectly, which suggests how deeply hate and discrimination can affect a community.
Themes
