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Chapter 4: American Laugh-Nosed Beet
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
Moose can’t stop thinking about when Mrs. McCraw, Mom’s second cousin, visited. She told Mom that it would be humane to put Natalie in an asylum, and Mom promptly told Mrs. McCraw to leave and never come back. Mom did send Moose out after Mrs. McCraw with Mrs. McCraw’s forgotten knitting bag. When Moose caught up with her, Mrs. McCraw said that Mom should focus on Moose, her “one good boy,” instead of going on “wild-goose chases” for her sick child. Mom, she said, should cut her losses. Moose nodded without really meaning to. Now, Moose tries to tell himself that they haven’t just put Natalie in an asylum—the Esther P. Marinoff is supposed to help.
While insane asylums have existed for more than a millennium, the modern asylum system arose in the mid-19th century (and grew eventually into the contemporary psychiatric hospital model). Mom believes Mrs. McCraw frames an asylum essentially as a place to dump Natalie and forget about her, which Mom refuses to do out of loyalty to her daughter. Moose agrees with Mom on some level, but he also recognizes that he’s not getting what he needs from his mom due to her focus on Natalie.
Themes
When Moose and his parents get home, there’s a note for Dad on their door from the warden, asking Dad to send Moose to meet him at 1700. Moose asks if he can go tomorrow, but Dad says he needs to rest, then they can play ball, and then Moose has to go. Later, Dad comes out of his room quietly so as not to wake Mom. Moose can’t find his glove and figures it’s in Natalie’s room; she recently decided the glove was hers. Moose can’t bring himself to open the door to her room, though, so Dad goes in to get it. Noticing her favorite purple blanket inside, Moose asks what Natalie will do without it. Dad says Mom was afraid it would get lost, but he purses his lips so hard they turn white.
Moose is desperately trying to tell himself that Natalie is going to be fine, and that they haven’t done something cruel to her by leaving her at the Esther P. Marinoff. Seeing evidence of Natalie’s life at home—her blanket, and her stealing his glove—makes this difficult to do. And Dad seems to believe that Moose has the right idea, and that boarding school isn’t right for Natalie. But he didn’t stand up to Mom, something that Moose seems to implicitly recognize.
Themes
Moose and Dad decide to throw down by the docks, and Moose is glad to have his dad back. He’s been angry at everyone since Dad started looking for a job in San Francisco—except for Natalie. He tries not to get mad at her, not least because once, when he yelled at her, Mom didn’t speak to Moose for a month afterward. Now, Moose asks Dad how long they’re here and says he doesn’t want to be here. Neither, he adds, does Natalie. Dad refuses to discuss Natalie, though he does say the warden knows about Natalie. Moose asks if Dad has met Piper and says Piper isn’t very nice, but Dad says she seems polite—and “the pretty ones are always trouble.”
Throughout his childhood, Mom has trained Moose to understand that their life revolves around Natalie, and that Moose cannot express any negative emotions he might have about his sister. So now, Moose vents to Dad and makes it clear how little he wants to be here. Still, the one upside that Moose can’t ignore is that with Natalie away, Moose gets more of his dad’s attention, highlighting that Moose has been missing this.
Themes
Moose turns the conversation back to Natalie, and Dad says they had to leave Santa Monica. Back there, Natalie was going to live her life counting buttons on Gram’s back porch. At the Esther P. Marinoff, there are skilled teachers to work with kids all hours of the day. Moose reminds Dad that Natalie was screaming when they left, and he says he wants to know this is going to work out. Dad says he can’t promise anything, but they have to “play the game.” Checking his watch, Dad tells Moose to put on a clean shirt—or as clean of a shirt as Moose has, since laundry doesn’t go out until Wednesday. He explains that here, the convicts do the laundry. Moose is shocked, but Dad says they darn socks too—and they do it better than Mom.
While Dad won’t argue with Moose that it was painful and traumatic for all of them to leave Natalie, he at least makes a good show of insisting that it was the right thing to do. He suggests that Natalie deserves to have a life in the world, and at this point, he believes she’ll only get that if she gets help from skilled teachers outside of the family home. The family, in this view, isn’t enough support for Natalie’s particular needs.
Themes
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