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Boy Masters Time
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
On the bus heading to see Mum, Eli imagines their reunion. She’s beautiful, and she’ll cry when Eli hands her the money. They’ll go straight to The Gap and put a deposit on a cottage. As Eli and August get off the bus in a northern Brisbane suburb, Eli realizes he’s going to miss Dad’s house—and Dad, when he’s sober. When the boys get to the right house, a nun, Sister Patricia, ushers them in. In the sunroom, Eli looks at a portrait of Jesus and thanks Jesus for forgiving him—he’s been wishing terrible things on the men who landed Mum in this place. Sister Patricia points them upstairs, and August walks right into Mum’s arms.
Beginning this chapter with Eli’s dreams of his reunion with Mum sets up tension, as his dreams likely won’t align with reality. Eli also assumes that with Mum now free, he won’t live with Dad anymore. Dad isn’t a villain in Eli’s mind these days; in fact, he’s pretty great sometimes. But he’s still nothing compared to Mum, and Eli is more than willing to leave him behind.
Themes
For three hours, Mum, Eli, and August sit in her room. Eli and August tell Mum about school and their favorite music, and then Mum introduces them to friends of hers from prison. The women tell stories about their time on the inside. Their best story is the one about Eli breaking in on Christmas. Then, just before Eli and August snuggle in to spend the night on Mum’s floor, Eli says he has something to share—and Mum says she has something to tell the boys, too. She goes first. Taking a deep breath and smiling, Mum says she’s moving in with Teddy.
Eli and August’s revelation is presumably that they’ve turned Lyle’s drugs into cash and can buy Mum a house. But that dream seems to shatter when Mum announces that she’s moving in with Teddy. For now, her reasons are a mystery. But this is no doubt a huge insult to Eli and August, since Eli acted as though he believed Darren that Teddy outed Lyle to Tytus Broz. Mum might not know it, but her relationship with Teddy is a betrayal of her sons and Lyle.
Themes
