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Chapter 17: Baseball on Tuesday
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Al Capone Does My Shirts, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Disability, Dignity, and Shared Humanity
Friendship and Community
Family
Growing Up and Doing the Right Thing
Summary
Analysis
The next morning, Scout excitedly runs up to Moose and begins talking about the baseball game later. Moose can’t bring himself to tell Scout he can’t play today. He considers pretending to get sick, but he finds Scout in the hallway later in the school day. Scout is, for some reason, talking to Piper. Piper informs Moose that she’s divvying up money later, and Moose isn’t getting a cent. As Scout says goodbye, Moose says in a whisper that he can’t come later—he can’t find anyone else to watch Natalie. He can only play at lunch. Scout slams his books down incredulously and says he’ll never play with Moose again. Moose goes home that afternoon and gives Natalie her buttons and lemon cake as soon as Mom leaves.
It’s devastating for Moose to find Scout talking to Piper—whom he’s ignoring his own crush on—and to then have to bow out of the game later. But Moose believes that his duty is to help his family, even if he doesn’t want to, and so disobeying Mom isn’t something he even considers in this regard. But when it comes to Natalie, Moose does retaliate by giving Natalie cake and her buttons. This also likely gives Natalie a better afternoon, suggesting that his reasons aside, Moose may be genuinely helping his sister by disobeying Mom.
Themes
