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Chapter 23
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in About a Boy, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Chosen Family
Coming of Age and Maturity
Alienation and Mental Illness
Identity, Pop Culture, and Fitting In
Summary
Analysis
At a New Year’s Eve party, Will falls head over heels for a woman named Rachel. Having never been in love before, he’s surprised by his feelings, especially since his friends’ experiences with love have led him to believe it’s an unnecessarily taxing and unpleasant process. All of the sudden, Will feels inadequate, comparing himself to the “intelligent, cultured, ambitious, beautiful, [and] witty” Rachel. He briefly wishes he hadn’t abandoned the concept of his two-year-old son, Ned, because at least Ned always made his life seem interesting, even if it was a lie.
Will experiences love for the first time—or, at least, he believes he does—when he meets Rachel. Entering into this new emotional territory makes Will feel unworthy when compared to the “cultured, ambitious, [and] beautiful” Rachel, and his sudden longing for his fictional son indicates his desire to appear like a more interesting and substantial person. However, without access to his typical chest of lies and facades, Will is simply forced to be himself, hoping it’s enough to win over the woman he “loves.”
Themes
As they get to talking, Will decides to take the less glamorous route of the truth and admits he only knows the party host because he used to buy marijuana from him. Nervous and a little flustered, Will neglects to offer more details or ask Rachel about herself, effectively ending their short-lived conversation. Realizing that “the most interesting thing about his life” is Marcus, Will resolves to mention the boy in their next exchange by any means necessary.
When Will talks to Rachel, he chooses honesty over embellishment, admitting he knows the party host through an old marijuana connection. His nervousness and failure to sustain the conversation at first reflect his lack of experience with sincere interactions and his discomfort in revealing his true self. Realizing that Marcus is probably the most interesting aspect of his life, Will resolves to bring him up as soon as he can. Though in this moment, Will is closer to absolute honesty than he has been with any other woman thus far, his ingrained insecurities override his newfound sense of directness.
Themes
Eventually, Will seizes the opportunity to work Marcus into conversation. Although he never explicitly says that Marcus is his son, he leads Rachel to believe so anyway. She grows excited and shares that she also has a son around Marcus’s age named Ali, and they talk about their exes. Will implies that Fiona is his ex-girlfriend. Ringing in 1994 at midnight, Will and Rachel share a kiss, and he feels hopeful that it could grow into something more; by the end of the evening, they’ve already set a time to introduce their “sons” to each other.
The midnight kiss and their plans to introduce their “sons” signify a hopeful beginning for Will, suggesting that he is on the verge of forming a more substantial and genuine relationship. As Will navigates the fine line between creating a facade and revealing his true self, he must eventually understand that the cost of a lie is far greater than the cost of authenticity.
Themes
