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Boy Busts Out
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 is standing in front of the office of the South-West Star, which is in an industrial suburb. He studies his reflection in the mirrored glass. Then, he presses the buzzer and asks to speak to Caitlyn Spies; he has a story for her but won’t say what it’s about. He finally tells the receptionist he has a love story, and that his best friend is Slim Halliday. While he waits, he watches an ant trail dig into a forgotten sausage roll and remembers Slim telling him about how ants use pheromones, and how scents can have meaning.
After spending so much time around people like Slim and Lyle, Eli isn’t used to adults (like the receptionist) not taking him seriously when he says he has something important to talk about. Slim and Lyle treated Eli more like an adult, while the receptionist is treating Eli more like a naughty child who certainly doesn’t have anything useful or interesting to say.
Themes
The receptionist finally buzzes Eli in and invites him to sit. She asks about his bandaged hand and sweaty face. With prodding, Eli shares that he’s 13 and lies that his parents know he’s here. Then, Caitlyn Spies walks in. She’s gorgeous, with brown hair and thick glasses. She flatly asks if Eli knows Slim. Too shocked to speak, Eli writes in the air that Slim is his best friend. Finding his voice, Eli explains that August writes like that and says that Slim was his babysitter. Caitlyn is unconvinced—Slim is probably dead, and having a killer babysit kids is “classy parenting.” Eli decides she’s being funny. He’d like to dive into her eyes.
Eli’s stunned reaction suggests he’s falling in love with Caitlyn Spies on the spot. The romance, however, seems one-sided. Caitlyn probably isn’t being funny when she speaks so sarcastically; she’s just trying to figure out who this kid is who’s interrupting her workday. Eli is too awed by Caitlyn to even register that he could take her assessment of Slim as an insult. Slim has been a mentor to Eli, and Eli historically hasn’t taken it well when people have suggested that his loved ones aren’t as great as he thinks they are.
Themes
Caitlyn waves a hand in Eli’s face and says he looks like a giraffe farting quietly. Eli thinks she’s hilarious and asks if they can sit down and talk. He tries to give a fake name, but Caitlyn reminds him he already told the receptionist his name. Eli starts by complimenting her on her story about Slim, but says she left out an important part: Slim was a good man who never got a chance to be good, because good men die in prison. Caitlyn suggests Eli should be playing with action figures and shares that she’s 21. Eli’s chest hurts. He starts to say that they’re meant to be, and he knows August would have the answer as to what exactly they’re supposed to be.
Speaking coherently to Caitlyn is difficult for Eli, in part because he believes that August can see the future—and in that future, Eli believes, he and Caitlyn are somehow together. Because he believes this so strongly, it hurts to learn that Caitlyn is almost a decade older than he is. At Eli’s age, that seems like too much of an age gap for them to ever be romantically involved. While Eli came here expecting to feel powerful, instead this experience just makes him feel young and lost.
Themes
Eli says he’s actually here to talk about Tytus Broz and how he lost his finger, but before he can say anything more, a fist bashes into the glass. Caitlyn curses and tells the receptionist to call the police—it’s Raymond Leary. Raymond looks like any middle-aged man, but he’s enraged. Caitlyn explains to Eli that the government took his house to build a highway and his wife committed suicide, and now he’s upset because the paper won’t tell his story. They can’t tell it because the paper supported the new road.
Caitlyn introduces Eli to the idea that newspapers aren’t always able to tell people’s stories, because they’re not entirely neutral. In this case, the paper doesn’t want to share Raymond’s story, as it might imply that the paper was wrong to support the road. Eli doesn’t seem to grasp it, but this means Caitlyn might not be able to share Eli’s story about Tytus—there may be political reasons she’d need to stay quiet.
Themes
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Just then, Raymond stops hitting the glass with his fists and runs headfirst into it. He does it twice more, and then Eli hurries out the door. Raymond wobbles as his face bleeds and as he notices Eli. Eli asks him to stop, and the man starts to breathe. Raymond says they don’t want to hear his story, so Eli offers to listen. But instead, Raymond runs into the glass again and knocks himself out. Caitlyn walks out of the office and tells Eli he’s “stupid, but stupid brave.” Eli has never felt better. Police officers arrive, so Eli says he has to go see Mum. He tells Caitlyn the timing isn’t right to tell his story and asks her to wait.
Eli doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to tell his story, but he can still empathize with someone like Raymond, who is in a hurry to tell the world about what happened to him. Eli also shows his naïveté, though, as he seems to overestimate the power of just listening to someone tell their story. Raymond wants the world to hear about what happened, not tell a random kid about it. So, Eli reads as kind but somewhat misguided here.
Themes
