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Chapter 4
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
One morning, Marcus finds his mother crying at the breakfast table. She usually doesn’t cry in the mornings, so he feels unsure about how to handle the situation. He chooses Coco Pops for his morning cereal, noting that the only upside to his mum’s depression is that she doesn’t notice when he eats a sugary, unhealthy breakfast. (Though he’d gladly give up all the sugary breakfasts if it meant his mum stopped being sad.) Marcus leaves without a word, and he tries to figure out what’s wrong with his mum on his way to school. He goes through a mental list of typical reasons people get sad—lack of money, the death of a loved one, an unfulfilling love life—but still can’t pinpoint why she has been so upset.
This section reveals Marcus’s growing awareness of his mother’s depression and his struggle to understand it. The striking contrast between his enjoyment of sugary cereal and his wish for his mother to be happy underscores his innocence and the complexity of navigating parental depression as a child. Marcus’s mental list of potential reasons for his mother’s sadness illustrate his desire to help her, despite feeling powerless and confused. This scene sets the foundation for Marcus’s emotional journey, as it establishes his empathy, concern, and the impact of his mother’s mental health on his own wellbeing.
Themes
By the time he gets to school, Marcus’s focus has shifted from his mum to his school bullies, who pose a more immediate concern. Skillfully eluding them, he tracks down his new friends Nicky and Mark—also victims of the bullies—playing with their Gameboy in the form room. But as he attempts to join in and watch them play, he senses that he is being purposely left out and can’t understand why his friends would do something like that. Initially, befriending Nicky and Mark provided Marcus with some defense against the bullies, as their threesome enjoyed strength in numbers. Nevertheless, the bullies persist.
Marcus’s shifting focus from his mother’s depression to his immediate fear of school bullies is a clear example of the constant stress he currently faces. His attempt and failure to connect with Nicky and Mark highlights Marcus’s isolation and the frailty of the few social connections he has made so far in London. This scene underscores the dual pressures with which Marcus is forced to contend: coping with his mother’s depression and navigating an unfamiliar, hostile school environment where he has very little support.
Themes
When the older boys once again target Marcus, Nicky, and Mark during lunch, hurling relentless insults at the “nerdy” seventh-graders, Marcus resorts to a coping tactic inspired by one of his mum’s old games: ignoring the bullies altogether, he mentally lists as many items as he can think of within a specific category. This allows him to dissociate from the bullying and shift his focus to less painful thoughts. But when Nicky and Mark tell Marcus that they don’t want to hang out with him anymore because they were never bullied so badly before Marcus’s arrival, he sadly understands. He blames himself for their misfortune, acknowledging that he would leave them alone if he had anywhere else at all to go.
Marcus’s mental game to dissociate from bullying exemplifies both his resourcefulness and his desperation to escape the ridicule. Nicky and Mark, who attribute their increased bullying to Marcus’s presence, ultimately reject him, which deepens his sense of isolation and self-blame. Despite his sadness, Marcus understands their decision because he, too, blames himself for their involvement with the bullies. This painful moment highlights the compounded challenges that Marcus faces—namely, being the primary target of older bullies and losing the limited social support he had—while simultaneously emphasizing his resilience.
Themes
