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Chapter 9
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Dibs in Search of Self, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Therapy, Empathy, and Non-Judgment
Parental Expectations vs. Self-Determination
Trust and Security
Intelligence vs. Emotional and Social Skills
Summary
Analysis
At Dibs’s sixth session the next week, he is once again at ease. He takes a truck in the sandbox, fills it with sand, and makes a hill. Then he places the soldiers all around the hill. After playing with the soldiers for a bit, he remarks that the soldiers aren’t able to get to the top of the hill, and he sadly brings each one back down the mountain. Axline wonders aloud if they felt sad that they couldn’t get to the top of the hill, and Dibs agrees. He says, however, that just trying to climb the hill made them happy. Dibs explains that he once tried to climb a hill but he didn’t get to the top of it; he then says that he thinks every child should have his own hill to climb.
Dibs’s invented story about the hill and the soldiers is symbolic of his own struggles. The inability to get up the hill it represents Dibs’s inability to live up to his parents’ expectations. However, in Dibs’s mind, just trying to get up the hill makes him happy, regardless of whether he accomplishes it or not. The story underscores that children should be allowed to go at their own pace and not be constantly evaluated by others.
Themes
Dibs then buries one of the soldiers in the sand under the hill, saying that this soldier didn’t even get the chance to climb the hill. Afterward, Dibs says that that particular soldier was “Papa.” At that moment, the church bells chime four o’clock, and Dibs starts describing different kinds of clocks. Axline notes that Dibs is retreating from his father’s burial through his discussion of clocks, and she doesn’t want to force him to talk about his feelings if he’s not ready.
Axline again observes that Dibs’s intellectual capabilities and his emotional capabilities are often at odds with one another; here, Dibs uses his intelligence as a retreat from his emotional distress when he starts talking about varieties of clocks in order to distract himself from thinking about his father. However, Axline does not want to push Dibs because she aims to help maintain Dibs’s self-determination. She recognizes that eventually Dibs will express his feelings at his own pace.
Themes
Dibs then looks out the window, observing the church. He says that “Dibs isn’t church-size,” and Axline comments that the church makes him feel little. Dibs replies that in the playroom he feels big. He then climbs back into the sandbox and starts talking about how he and his father went to a shoe repairman’s shop to fix some shoes—but eventually he realizes that it’s five minutes past the end of their session. (Axline didn’t want to interrupt his story, so she did not tell him it was time to go.) Dibs gets his hat and coat and puts on his socks and shoes. He turns the “Do not Disturb” sign around on the door, saying that other people can disturb the room now.
Dibs’s observations about himself and the church indicate his hesitation about new experiences. At this moment, the church feels too large for him, indicating his insecurity about confronting something so big and so unknown. However, his comparison of the church to the playroom illustrates how much progress he has made inside the room. He feels big in the playroom because he has confidence and security in his surroundings. His confidence is apparent at the end of the session when he gets his own hat and coat and puts on his own socks and shoes, making his own way out the door.
Themes
