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Boy Makes Rainbow
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Boy Swallows Universe, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Goodness, Masculinity, and Coming of Age
Trauma, Coping, and Healing
Family, Love, and Mentorship
Storytelling and Justice
Money, Suburbia, and Criminality
Summary
Analysis
Eli wakes up in the middle of the night to August wiping sweat off his face; Eli was having the “magic car” dream again. In it, Eli and August are in the backseat of a car, having a great time, until the car dives to the bottom of the ocean. Dad is driving. Now Eli is hungry, since they went to bed early and without dinner after Lyle silently pulled them out of the outhouse. Eli and August sneak to the kitchen to make sandwiches. Sandwiches in hand, they go to the window and crouch instantly. Lyle is outside by the fence, smoking. When a firework goes off nearby, Lyle walks away. August writes that he already knows where Lyle is going, so Eli follows on his own.
Eli and August’s close relationship shines through here. August takes his role as Eli’s big brother seriously, and he makes sure that when Eli doesn’t feel alone when he’s having a bad dream. The fact that Dad is the one driving the car into the ocean is ominous, and it suggests that Eli is afraid of or doesn’t trust his biological father. When it comes to Lyle walking off after this firework, August shows that he’s a bit older, more mature, and more observant than Eli, since he knows where Lyle is going.
Themes
Eli often follows people, and he’s good at it because he knows he must believe he’s invisible. He follows Lyle barefoot, in his pajamas with a hole in the butt. They cross the park and then from a mango tree, Eli watches Lyle turn into Darren Dang’s driveway. Darren is in Eli’s grade at school and he’s a known bully and troublemaker. Once, he made Eli meet him and his crony Eric Voight by the bins and then forced Eli to hold an obese brown rat while Darren tried to cut the rat’s tail off. Eli let the rat get away, so Darren tried to cut off Eli’s finger in retaliation. The drunken groundsman, Mr. McKinnon, found the boys before Darren could swing the machete, but Darren and Eric got away.
Eli’s holey pajamas are suggestive of his family’s low economic status, something Eli doesn’t seem fully aware of. Bringing up this horrifying story about Darren trying to cut the rat’s tail off suggests that Eli might be afraid of seeing Lyle going to the Dangs’ house—one of the Dangs, at least, is known to be violent and cruel. Eli, though, shows that he’s more compassionate when he lets the rat escape with its tail.
Themes
Darren’s house is one of the biggest in Darra. Eli scurries around the plastic princess castles and the trampoline in the yard until he catches sight of Lyle sitting with Darren’s mum and stepdad, “Back Off” Bich Dang and Quan Nguyen, through the living room windows. Bich got her nickname when she stabbed a girl in the eye for teasing one of her daughters. She never went to prison, and this made Eli realize that Darra has its own rules, and that Bich probably drafted many of them herself. She’s very important in town, as she owns the biggest Vietnamese supermarket, a Vietnamese restaurant, and sponsors community events.
The size of Darren’s house, combined with how successful Bich Dang is in her various business ventures, suggests that the Dangs are far wealthier than Eli’s family is. But Eli is also starting to suspect that people don’t become well-off just because they follow the rules. Perhaps people achieve Bich Dang’s level of success because they make the rules to suit themselves. This starts to expose a possible imbalance, where Eli and perhaps Lyle are far less powerful than families like the Dangs, who have money and power.
Themes
Eli watches Bich direct Quan (who’s more of a servant than a husband) to bring a Styrofoam box to Lyle, just as Darren puts a knife to Eli’s neck. The knife is actually a samurai sword, and Darren laughs as he jokes about cutting Eli’s head off. Once Darren gets Eli to say that Lyle isn’t his dad but is good to Mum, Darren sits next to Eli on the trampoline. Darren offers Eli a cigarette, which just makes Eli cough. Then, Darren confirms that Bich is selling heroin to Lyle, and that the firework is her notification system. Eli and Darren note that Lyle is working for Tytus Broz. Then, Darren asks if Eli feels like stabbing something. Eli does.
Darren appears to enjoy frightening people and feeling powerful, especially when he gets to do so with outlandishly large weapons (like the samurai sword and the machete in the earlier anecdote about the rat). But Darren himself doesn’t seem to frighten Eli too much. Rather, here, Darren establishes himself as an important source of information. Eli is able to confirm that Lyle is getting heroin to sell from Bich Dang, and that both Lyle and Bich Dang are working for Tytus Broz. Who Tytus is, though, remains a mystery for now.
Themes
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Darren leads Eli to a small green car a few blocks away, and then offers Eli a stocking to put over his head. Eli refuses and notes that this is Father Monroe’s car as Darren climbs on top. Darren explains that Father Monroe pays a boy to expose his penis while Father Monroe masturbates. Eli insists that’s nonsense, but Darren stabs his sword through the car’s roof anyway. The boys race away when Father Monroe comes outside and yells.
If Darren is right about Father Monroe (and the novel never confirms who’s right), this shows Eli again that he can’t assume he knows everything about people in his community. Just as Bich Dang is more than a businesswoman, figures like Father Monroe might be more than a religious leader—he could be an abuser.
Themes
As Darren and Eli sit on a roof, smoking, Darren observes that it’s awful to think you’re hanging with the good guys, when you’re actually with the bad guys. Darren describes the terrifying night he learned Bich was dealing—the cops stripped her and frightened Darren so bad that he pooped his pants. Now, Darren knows his mother is a key player in “the game.” He says they aren’t the “baddest.” Those guys are hard to identify, as they’re “suburban psychopaths” who kill people with the same knives they use in the kitchen. Then, Darren asks if Eli’s real dad is “good.” He explains that he asks because he’s never met a good adult man—they’re the “most fucked-up creatures on the planet.”
It seems like Darren is trying hard to be cool as he tells Eli about the night he learned Bich was involved in the drug trade. His story sounds like a terrifying experience, but he’s far more interested in impressing Eli than acknowledging that it was traumatic seeing his mother stripped. But now, he thinks of his mother as being powerful and in-control. Generally, Darren is interested in figuring out how to identify who’s good and evil. Unfortunately for him, he’s realizing it’s hard to identify a good or bad person just by looking at them—the “suburban psychopaths” seem to look like normal people, not like stereotypical villains.
Themes
Wandering back to the trampoline, Darren explains that Eli is in a great place. According to Bich, Australians are naturally miserable people, drugs will always help that misery, and so drugs will always be in demand. Darren explains that he’ll own a drug empire soon and, citing Eli’s supposed loyalty (since Eli didn’t tell the school about Darren’s involvement in the rat incident), invites Eli to be part of his empire. Eli declines. He’d like to be a journalist writing crime stories for The Courier-Mail and he wants to live in The Gap, a wealthy suburb. Eli explains that Lyle bought an Atari game console there, and Eli fell in love with the cul-de-sacs. Darren laughs and says Eli could buy a house there tomorrow if he joined. Then Darren says they should go up, since Bich wants to meet Eli.
Especially given Darren’s youth, his knowledge of and interest in the local drug trade is almost humorous—he’s a 12-year-old kid with a samurai sword, and he seems more interested in theatrics than anything else. But Darren also seems to see the drug trade as the only way to get by. Eli, on the other hand, wants to write about people like Darren from the safety of a wealthier suburb, like The Gap. To Eli, The Gap represents safety and security; cul-de-sacs signal to him that he could play in the street without worrying about through traffic.
Themes
Darren leads Eli into the living room. Lyle is enraged and tells Eli to go home, but Bich asks Eli to explain why he’s here. Eli tells her about the firework and following Lyle, and then Bich draws Eli close and tells him to ask his questions. She warns Lyle to answer truthfully. Eli asks why Lyle is dealing. Lyle says he does it for Tytus Broz and refuses to give an answer that pleases Bich. Lyle then gets up to lead Eli out, but Bich calls Eli back again. She asks why he didn’t tell the school about the rat, and Eli says Darren is his friend, and that Lyle taught him loyalty. At this, Bich suggests to Lyle that they talk later about new “opportunities.” Then, she says that Lyle deals drugs for Eli.
Lyle’s anger at Eli seems to stem from his desire to protect Eli’s innocence: he perhaps doesn’t want Eli knowing he deals heroin. Bich, on the other hand, has no issue with children knowing what the adults who care for them are up to (this is perhaps why Darren is so well-versed in the local drug trade). Again, it’s clear that Eli idolizes Lyle, when he mentions that Lyle was the one who taught him to be loyal. Bich tries to convey that Lyle is just as loyal to Eli when she insists Lyle deals for Eli. This suggests that Lyle is trying to help his family by making money in this way.
Themes
