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Chapter Twenty
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Complicated Kindness, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Religion and Dogma
Family and Home
Community and Coming of Age
Narrative and Storytelling
Christian Salvation vs. Earthly Joy
Summary
Analysis
At school the next day, Nomi sleeps through two classes and is sent to the principal’s office. The principal says that it’s clear these are not “the best years” of Nomi’s life, and lets her leave early. Travis comes to pick her up, but she criticizes him for wearing a poncho and he drives away angrily. Nomi goes back to history class and remembers her nightmares again.
The principal’s comment is remarkably soothing and empathetic, a stark contrast to the derision she usually faces from her teacher. The principles words suggest that Nomi’s worth isn’t measured by her ability to succeed in high school or conform to Mennonite norms, and this reassurance could potentially imbue Nomi with the confidence to break away from these institutions and forge a life for herself.
Themes
After Tash’s departure, Trudie became so frustrated with Nomi’s nightmares that she drove Nomi to The Mouth’s house in the middle of the night and demanded that he apologize to Nomi and promise that Tash wouldn’t go to hell. The Mouth said that Trudie was crazy, just like Tash, and Trudie sobbed that he knew “nothing about love” and that his beliefs were just stories. The Mouth refused to apologize. Trudie said she would never forgive him, and after The Mouth went inside, she threw rocks at his windows and screamed.
This dramatic moment highlights the differences between Trudie and The Mouth. Trudie prizes the wellbeing of her family over religious certainty, while The Mouth sees dogma as more important than human relationships and seems to relish the terror and shame it inspires. Nomi’s nightmares and Trudie’s anguish show the human cost of this strict approach to religion.
Themes
After school, Travis picks Nomi up and they both apologize for their earlier behavior. Without telling Nomi where they’re going, Travis drives out of town; eventually they arrive at his parents’ snowmobile cabin. Travis says it has a bed and a fireplace, and Nomi gets the point. Later in the afternoon they drive back to town so Travis can help his dad lay a carpet. Before he leaves, Travis calls Nomi “baby.”
Nomi doesn’t say explicitly if she has sex with Travis, but it’s notable that Travis dictates the what they do and where they go—Nomi merely gets to choose whether or not she wants to go along.
Themes
Nomi recalls that Trudie started behaving really strangely after their nighttime encounter with The Mouth. She wandered the town at night and stopped speaking almost entirely. One afternoon, Nomi came home to find Trudie and Ray crying in each others’ arms. Another day, Nomi got mad at Trudie because she forgot to make dinner and, in a frenzy, Trudie wrote “eat” on every square of the calendar as a daily reminder.
In a way, Trudie’s increasing neglect of household chores is the prelude to Ray’s disregard for home maintenance after her departure. Neither one can bear to carry out the routines of normal life when their family structure seems so broken.
Themes
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In the present day, Nomi wanders aimlessly around Main Street. The church has a new sign that says, “You think it’s hot here…God.” Nomi thinks that The Mouth must be insane to make threats in God’s name. Thinking of all the beautiful and hopeful Bible verses he could have posted instead, she starts crying and banging on the door of The Mouth’s office. When no one answers, she kicks the sign until all the letters fall out. A little boy and girl see her doing this, but they kindly promise not to tell anyone.
It seems like The Mouth is actually threatening people with damnation in God’s name. Ironically, Nomi’s horror and fury at his arrogance and abuse of power shows that she has more respect for the idea of divine authority than The Mouth does, even though she’s not sure if she believes in God.
Themes
Nomi misses Lids, so she walks to the hospital to visit. However, Lids’s parents are in the room talking to the doctor, and they ask her to come back later. In the hallway, the nice nurse tells Nomi that Lids impulsively decided to go on a walk earlier that afternoon and collapsed on the street, refusing to let anyone touch her because of her pain. Lids’s parents want to take her home and treat her with “prayer and tomato juice,” but Lids has insisted on returning to the hospital. The nice nurse admits that the doctors don’t know how to cure her either.
The exact nature of Lids’s chronic illness is unknown, but it’s interesting that neither her religious parents nor the secular doctors can cure her. Both parties are equally certain of their own righteousness and the other’s delusion, while Lids seems equally skeptical and disillusioned by both. This provides yet another layer of ambivalence in the novel’s depiction of religion, as it suggests that neither dogmatic beliefs nor a total rejection of spirituality are necessarily ideal.
Themes
Nomi walks out of town to the waste lagoon, which she’s never visited. Contrary to her expectations, it doesn’t smell bad and it almost looks pretty. Tash once told Nomi that Ray proposed to Trudie here, so Nomi reflects that the lagoon is the reason for her existence.
Nomi frequently finds beauty in places that most people dismiss, like the sewage pit where her classmates hang out or this lake of waste. The fact that Ray might have proposed here links this endearing trait to her parents and their shared family bond.
Themes
Walking back through town, Nomi spots Ray in the bank lobby, quoting Yeats to a bank teller who was once his student. Together they walk home, where a repairman is fixing the garage roof. Ray brings him a glass of water and stands outside watching him work. Nomi thinks this is embarrassing.
The workman’s matter-of-fact attitude toward the job at hand contrasts with Ray’s indecision and apathy. Ray clearly wants to take charge of his life by caring for the house, but his grief over his fractured family renders him unable to commit to the task.
Themes
