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Chapter 46
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in America Is in the Heart, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Beauty in Despair
Race and American Identity
Education vs. Ignorance
Poverty
Summary
Analysis
A radio announcer reports the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan. Carlos runs to Macario’s hotel, where Macario and another man named Joe Tauro are listening to the radio. They worry about the impact war will have on the Philippines. The prospect of war brings José to tears. Joe tearfully gets a bottle of bourbon and the men share a drink. Carlos reminisces about his childhood and wonders about his family, and soon the men take a drunken stroll outside.
The possibility that Japanese forces might invade the Philippines places his homeland back into the forefront of Carlos’s mind. This shocking new development makes it clear that for all Carlos and the others do to try and improve their world, they are still at the mercy of enormous forces beyond their control.
Themes
Carlos and the other men go into a strip club and witness a fight that draws the police. They flee the strip club and go to a restaurant where Conrado Torres is sitting. José reminds Carlos about an upcoming conference of labor and social leaders. Suddenly, Conrado and Amado begin fighting until two girls distract them. Carlos is disgusted by his friends’ and brothers’ behavior, and he wonders if the war is already breaking them.
The prospect of war comes as a shock to Carlos’s friends and brothers, and their somewhat destructive response to the news is symptomatic of their precarious place within American society. Neither citizens nor strangers, they remain on the margins of America even in a time of impending chaos, and this hybrid status makes the war even more stressful for them.
Themes
A few days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Carlos and his friends go to enlist in the military, but they are refused on grounds that they are aliens, not citizens. As Japanese forces overrun Binalonan, Carlos and other Filipino delegates petition Washington to permit Filipino enlistment, and President Franklin Roosevelt signs a proclamation allowing the formation of Filipino regiments.
The onset of America’s war with Japan brings war to the Philippines as well. The outbreak of war inspires Carlos and his friends to fight for American freedom and to protect their homeland from Japanese forces, and this moment represents a symbolic merging of Carlos’s investment in both his original homeland and his adopted home.
Themes
