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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Flyboys, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Fear of Emotion
Family and Class
Imagination, Rationality, and Escape
Summary
Analysis
The narrator and his friend Clark decide they will build a jet plane, which they painstakingly design together at Clark’s house. Though Clark occasionally allows the narrator to handle the tools, Clark finds the narrator slow, so he’s usually the one doing the work. While Clark works, the narrator fools around with Clark’s samurai sword or wanders the house.
While the boys are working together, on their project, it is Clark who takes the lead. This is in part because the tools belong to him and he has more experience, but really, it has more to do with the boys’ differing approaches to the work. They seem to have quite different demeanors, and they seem a bit disconnected as friends, since they don’t interact much while they spend together.
Themes
Clark’s mom isn’t home very much, so the narrator has free reign to make a sandwich, listen to records, and peruse photo albums while Clark works upstairs. In the photos, he sees a family that has been blessed with luck and wealth, never having to endure hardships like layoffs or illness or fighting. He longs to belong to a family like this, which frustrates him and makes him return to Clark’s room.
The narrator makes himself right at home in Clark’s empty house. That he must make his sandwich himself speaks to the lack of parental presence in the house. Still, the space is comfortable and the family he sees in the photos looks perfect to him. The narrator’s desire to step permanently into their world of wealth and good fortune speaks to what is lacking in his own home, and it emphasizes a class difference between his and Clark’s family which will continue to play into the events of the story.
Themes
While Clark takes the lead in the hands-on drafting of the jet plane, the narrator takes the lead in the design choices for their project. He becomes domineering and at times mocks his friend’s suggestions, but Clark implements the narrator’s demands without seeming to register his condescension. The narrator believes it is Clark’s dedication to the project that allows him to prioritize the design over his pride. Clark’s devotion to the plane project also means that he rejects some of the narrator’s less helpful suggestions, and no amount of convincing can change his mind. This makes the narrator resentful, and he imagines whacking off Clark’s head with the samurai sword.
Because Clark and the narrator have such different personalities and views on their project, there is a significant amount of tension that develops—mostly on the narrator’s side. This passage establishes the narrator’s flair for the dramatic and wild creativity, both in his design techniques and in the way he imagines lobbing off his friend’s head with the blade in his hand. The narrator often uses his imagination to cope with difficult situations or challenging emotions.
Themes
The narrator finds Clark practical and stubborn without being unkind. His temperament is consistent day-to-day. Though Clark’s family is wealthy and lives lavishly in comparison to the narrator, the only possessions that Clark cares about are the tools he uses to make things. Together, the narrator and Clark have made films, crafted a bed-sized sled, and written a radio mystery that they entered into a local station’s competition. While the narrator’s imagination ran wild in planning these projects, it was Clark’s patience and dedication that ensured their dreaming came to fruition.
The class difference between the boys plays a large role in the way the narrator views Clark (and later Freddy). Though the narrator gets frustrated with Clark, it is also apparent that he admires Clark’s consistency and the way he uses his family wealth to create things rather than simply possess things. More importantly, it also means that the narrator has access to the kind of resources that it is implied would otherwise be beyond his family’s means. He knows that those resources, paired with Clark’s dogged commitment, drive the completion of their projects, so the narrator remains friends with Clark even though they are very different people.
Themes
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While the narrator is aware that Clark does all the real work, he believes that he himself supplies all the genius in their relationship. At the end of each day of designing the jet plane, the precise and real blueprints Clark creates turn into a real plane in the narrator’s imagination. As he heads home, he imagines himself in the cockpit soaring over their town. He feels the g-force in his body and the plane shaking as he climbs higher in the sky than he thinks is possible.
Clark seems to avoid his problems by throwing himself into the work, while the narrator’s main mode of escape continues to be his imagination. In his reverie on the walk home, the plane functions as an emotional escape that allows him to soar far above the town and his problems. With Clark’s help and the narrator’s creativity, he believes that his vivid daydream about flying can become a reality.
Themes
After many months of working on the design of the plane, the planning process grows stagnant. Then one day at recess, Clark tells the narrator he has found them a canopy so they can begin construction. The narrator is frustrated when Clark won’t share the details with him out of fear that the narrator will divulge their secret plans. Instead, the narrator follows Clark as they walk through town after school, annoyed at how fast he needs to hustle to keep up with Clark. They pass a construction site where the narrator was once chased by older boys, cross the bridge over Flint Creek, and end up in a place that narrator knows well, having been there many times.
Here, the unbalanced dynamic between the boys continues. Clark not only has more wealth and access to materials than the narrator, but he also seems to have more control in most situations. Clark is the one who sets the pace, deciding to begin construction, withholding information (however justified), and even walking far faster than the narrator can keep up with. However, the dynamic is about to shift with the introduction of a new character, with whom the narrator has a very different relationship.
Themes
The boys are heading to the house of a classmate, Freddy. The narrator tells Clark he does not remember Freddy having an airplane canopy, but Clark assures him he does. When the narrator asks Clark why he told Freddy about the plane in the first place when Clark had asked him to keep things quiet, Clark replies that he didn’t. Another classmate, Sandra, told Freddy about their project. At this, the narrator goes quiet, since he was the one who told Sandra behind Clark’s back.
Because the three boys are all classmates, Clark would have assumed the narrator and Freddy knew each other, but he is completely unaware of how much history the other two have. The narrator does not share this information once he realizes where they are going. He silence is partially in response to being chastised for blabbing about the project in the first place, but there is also a twinge of embarrassment that is not explained until later.
Themes
Walking up to the house, the narrator hears a chainsaw tearing through the trees in the woods beyond the house. He remembers the times when he and Freddy used to spend all day out there. The narrator chooses to hang behind Clark as he knocks on the door, which Freddy’s mother answers. She tells them Freddy is in the kitchen, and Clark goes inside. After hesitating, the narrator follows. When he passes Freddy’s mother, she ruffles his hair and tells the narrator he is “a sight for sore eyes.” Though he knows her greeting is earnest, he still hears it as a reproach.
The house the two boys walk up to is very different than Clark’s, which is at the center of town. Freddy’s is on the edge of town in the woods, which showcases the characters’ different class backgrounds. The narrator’s memories of his and Freddy’s time playing in the woods speaks to their closeness, and his hesitancy in approaching the house and interacting with Freddy’s mom foreshadows the complicated, abrupt ending to their relationship.
Themes
In the kitchen, Freddy is sitting at the table reading. When the boys enter, he closes his book and greets them. The narrator says hi back and is hit with a flood of emotions. He and Freddy have not spoken in nearly a year, not since Freddy had to go to the hospital. Freddy’s mom follows them in and tells her son to fix a plate of cookies.
Freddy’s mom is the first parental figure to appear in the story, and she is both warm and nurturing. Rather than finding this comforting, the narrator feels awkward and guilty for not coming over for more than a year.
Themes
Clark says he can’t stay long, but when no one responds he settles in at the table. On the tabletop are images of animals and fish that were carved by Freddy’s brother, Tanker. He used to drink beer and tell them stories while he worked the wood with his knife. The narrator reflects that if Tanker had not died, the table would be fully covered in carvings by now.
The narrator’s memories of Tanker demonstrate the kind of love and joy that the narrator once experienced before he and Freddy became estranged. Storytelling and imagination are at the center of Freddy’s family life, which fits much better with the narrator’s personality than Clark’s household does. The narrator and Freddy’s friendship was based far more on common interests than the narrator’s current friendship with Clark is. The mention of Tanker’s death begins to suggest what may have driven the narrator away from a place that had been so important to him.
Themes
Freddy’s home is full of things that are familiar to the narrator. The house smells like laundry and the windows are fogged, and Freddy brings over oreos on a dingy but clean plate. The narrator watches Clark as he grabs a fistful of oreos, noting that Clark is unaware of the pre-existing dynamic going on around him.
The narrator’s observations of the home are tinged with his recognition that Freddy’s family is less well-off than his or Clark’s. Though the home is clean and cozy, everything is a bit worn. Clark, for his part, seems oblivious to the disparity in wealth, just as he is in the dark about the history between the narrator and Freddy.
Themes
Freddy’s mother nibbles an oreo. She is a frail woman, who looks at the narrator with sad eyes. He wants to look away, but he makes himself look back at her. Freddy’s mother remarks that the narrator has grown a good deal since he last visited, asking Freddy if he noticed. Freddy responds, “like a weed,” and the narrator echoes, “by leaps and bounds.” This sharing of colloquialisms is a game that the three used to play when the narrator spent time there. Clark is confused by the exchange.
The narrator’s subtle pity for this poorer family is mirrored by his pity for Freddy’s mother. He can see in her the physical manifestations of the hardship she has endured and he is repelled by it. The narrator’s sense of guilt continues to grow as they discuss how long it has been since he visited, but he just as quickly falls back into the family’s playful use of language games, which shows that he’s both drawn to and repelled by this family.
Themes
Freddy’s mother then asks about the airplane, and Clark responds that they have just begun construction and are eager to return to the task at hand. He says they are looking for a canopy, but the conversation then falls quiet. Freddy’s mother encourages her son to tell the other boys about the book he’s reading, so Freddy describes the story of Tamerlane and his revenge on Persia, relishing the gory details and reciting phrases from the book. The narrator remembers that while Freddy is a gentle person, he is especially captivated by historical tales of danger and adventure, an interest they share. Clark, in contrast, is taken aback by Freddy’s story.
Though Clark, who loves getting into finer details, is eager to talk about the specifics of the airplane, no one engages with him on the topic for very long. Instead, Freddy’s mom continues to be very involved in their conversation, prompting her son to share a topic she knows the narrator and Freddy have in common. The narrator is still very interested in these kinds of intrepid tales, but he is self-conscious about Clark’s incredulous reaction. The narrator is torn between his and Freddy’s old, shared interests and his new, stable friendship with Clark.
Themes
The narrator thinks of Tanker again, who was killed in a motorcycle accident. In contrast to Clark’s lucky family, the narrator describes Freddy’s family as deeply unlucky. They have experienced bat infestations and chronic car issues, and Ivan, Freddy’s stepfather, is always caught when he dumps garbage illegally or forgets to pay back taxes. It seems to the narrator that Ivan is the source of the majority of the family’s troubles, not out of malice but because of his lack of forethought. Tanker was the only person who could get through to Ivan. When Tanker died, Ivan disappeared for a long time.
The narrator’s descriptions of the bad luck Freddy’s family has endured show more explicitly how different Freddy and Clark’s families are. He feels Clark’s family is inherently lucky and wealthy, while he describes Freddy’s family’s poverty and hardship as a result of bad choices. Subconsciously, the narrator has come to believe that Clark’s money and practicality have exempted him from the kind of problems that are so prevalent in Freddy’s life, but he's also not acknowledging that Freddy’s family seems much more loving and present than Clark’s, which is one way in which Clark is unlucky.
Themes
The narrator remembers how, when Tanker was home, everyone would sit at the table listening to his stories. He told stories about himself that were often embarrassing, but the way he shared them, sometimes tearing up, made them seem like they were “the most precious thing that ever happened to him.” The narrator remembers how Tanker was the center of the household: the house was always filled with his friends, he could fix anything that had broken, and he often took Freddy and the narrator on camping trips where he gave them Indian names.
Up to this point, the narrator has struggled to handle the feelings of others. Displays of emotions only stir pity and discomfort in him, and his usual response is to turn away. His memories of Tanker differ, though. Tanker expressed feelings readily, even negative or embarrassing emotions. At the time, instead of repelling the narrator, it drew him in and showed him that hard emotions can be a tool for connection. It’s clear that the narrator is grieving Tanker, too.
Themes
After Tanker’s death, the house lost its joy. It became quiet and empty, even after Ivan returned. Freddy’s mother stayed home in the dark all day, and when she made the effort to come out of her room to ask him and Freddy about their day and offer to feed them, the narrator wished she’d stayed in her room. Her sadness “appalled” him, and more than that, he was horrified by watching her failed attempts to overcome that sadness. In watching her grief, he came to understand that pain does not always heal, and things do not always work out.
Tanker was a model for healthy emotion, but after his death, the narrator seems to have lost his ability to navigate complex feelings. He found it particularly hard to interact with Freddy’s mom in her grief, to the point he wished he didn’t have to see her at all. In her grief, his view of the world became less hopeful, which deeply affected his ability to handle his own family’s problems. Still, it is important that Freddy’s mom continues to show up. She still offers to make sandwiches (a symbol of care), even if she is overwhelmed by her pain. Ivan, too, continues to try, even if he initially left to mourn.
Themes
In this period of time after Tanker’s death, the narrator recalls one day where he and Freddy were outside shooting baskets. Freddy’s mother called her son inside, and the narrator practiced his shooting for a long time without Freddy returning. He was overcome with a sense of unease as he listened to the ball bouncing under his hand, but he was scared to break the rhythm. The ball hitting the ground over and over sounded to him like “emptiness itself.” He finally held the ball still and looked to the house, where he imagined Freddy and his mother trapped inside the house with their grief. Suddenly, the narrator broke into a run, sprinting all the way home. It was this day that the older boys had chased him, attracted to his panic.
The narrator’s inability to handle the massive grief that Freddy’s family was experiencing is the reason that his and Freddy’s friendship ended. His reaction was to avoid that pain by literally leaving the house and figuratively leaving his friendship. That same instinct propels the narrator’s desire to build a jet plane. The design process is one type of escape—he goes to Clark’s to spend time outside his own troubled home—and the completed plane would allow him to fly away even further from his family’s problems.
Themes
During his recollection, the narrator is still unsure where his panic on that day originated, though he is confident that it was not just about Freddy’s family. At this same time, the strife of the narrator’s own family was beginning to dawn on him, though he tried not to notice it. Even without the ability to name it, his sense of foreboding lingered, triggered by the hardship and vulnerability of others as if misfortune were contagious. The grief of Freddy’s family made it harder to ignore his own family’s fragility.
Ultimately, the narrator’s urge to flee had far more to do with the issues happening in his own home than it did with Freddy. Because the pain he witnessed at Freddy’s made him less able to ignore his own slowly dissolving family, he chose to cut Freddy off rather than face his own pain. This is also why he is drawn to Clark; his stable, happy home life (or at least the appearance of it) continues to seem like a safer choice than a friendship with Freddy, whose family problems are out in the open and inescapable.
Themes
It was an asthma attack that sent Freddy into the hospital on this same day, which the narrator learned from his teacher in school the following week. She encouraged the class to write get-well-soon messages and gave them the address of the hospital, but the narrator could not bring himself to visit. Ashamed of his failure to do so, the narrator could not face Freddy when he returned to school. The two boys began to mutually avoid each other. Clark and the narrator became friends soon after, and this is the first time the narrator and Freddy have interacted since.
By refusing to visit Freddy in the hospital after his asthma attack, the narrator cemented his decision to break off contact with him. However, the guilt of ignoring his grieving friend is only compounded by the additional misfortune of such a bad health scare. Freddy’s motivation for avoiding the narrator in return is unclear. Like the slight imbalance of power between Clark and the narrator, the narrator seems to have had the upper hand in his relationship with Freddy. Class is the implicit reason given for those power dynamics.
Themes
Back in the present, Clark eats the rest of the cookies on the plate while listening to Freddy talk about Tamerlane. When Freddy finishes, the narrator then offers another gruesome story about Quantrill’s Raiders. As he speaks, Freddy is enraptured, and Freddy’s mother exclaims at the all the plot twists. Clark, however, listens without interest, impatient to return to their work and too pragmatic to enjoy their storytelling. The narrator is aware that Clark is seeing a new side of him that he likely judges. Still, the narrator continues to elaborate and play up the drama of his tale, pleasantly reminded of the joy he used to feel knowing Freddy was hanging onto his every word.
Throughout their time in the kitchen, the narrator is caught between two very different friendships. On one hand, he wants to preserve his current friendship with Clark, who is his ticket toward finishing their plane design and achieving the escape that he needs. On the other hand, the narrator feels intense guilt about abandoning Freddy and has been reminded of the connection they once had. In the end, his own enjoyment of letting his imagination run wild and titillating his audience wins out over Clark’s annoyance and possible judgement, showing where the narrator’s natural inclinations lie.
Themes
Ivan then enters the kitchen, interrupting the narrator’s story. He, like everything else in the house, is exactly how the narrator remembers: a big white face wearing a too-small, red hunting cap. Ivan is caked in thick, black mud up to his knees, and he exclaims when seeing the narrator at his kitchen table once more. One of the lenses in his glasses has a dot of mud in the center, making it look like a pair of joke glasses to the narrator. Ivan explains that the truck is stuck.
The narrator’s assessment of Ivan’s appearance supports the haphazard, foolish demeanor the narrator associates with Freddy’s family’s bad luck. It is also unsurprising to the narrator that Ivan has gotten himself in a sticky situation, as he has done so often in the past. While the previous scene showed the narrator enraptured by storytelling with Freddy’s family, here he’s reminded of what makes him uncomfortable in their household, illustrating his complicated feelings.
Themes
All three boys follow Ivan outside and consider the dilemma of Tanker’s old, beat-up pickup truck stuck in the mud. Ivan says the truck is “past her prime,” then Freddy and the narrator pile on their own colloquial phrases, just as they did with Freddy’s mother in the kitchen. The joke ends when Ivan says he can’t bring himself to sell Tanker’s truck, nearly breaking into tears. The narrator is horrified by the rush of emotions, but Ivan bites his lip to catch himself.
Despite the narrator’s judgement of Ivan’s past mistakes, their idiom-laced repartee in the yard shows they too had a bond before the narrator ran away. But the lightness of their jokes is suddenly broken by Ivan’s rush of sadness over the truck—another instance where the narrator feels repulsion at displays of grief.
Themes
Ivan instructs them to empty out the truck bed, which is full of logs from the trees Ivan has been clearing from the property. Freddy and the narrator used to hide in the trees at the back of the property to spy on the family next door, but Ivan has cut down so many trees that the neighbor’s house is now in plain sight. Ivan has been felling trees to sell as firewood, which the narrator knows is foolish and unprofitable. He recalls how he and Freddy used to spend their summers in these woods pretending they were in unexplored American territory, a tropical jungle, or on Mars. Nearly all the forest, and everything the boys imagined it to be, is now gone.
The forest embodies for the narrator the best of his friendship with Freddy. It was a place where the two got lost in their imaginations, having adventures that distracted them from their real-life cares. To the narrator, Ivan’s decision to cut down those trees is sad, but mostly it reinforces for him the hopelessness of Ivan’s hair-brained schemes. Ivan’s orders to empty out and then reload a full truck bed of logs—hours of work—is just another instance of how Ivan tends to put in the most amount of work for the least amount of profit.
Themes
Ivan believes emptying the logs will be enough to get the vehicle out, but Clark disagrees. Ivan, Freddy, and the narrator exchange more colloquialisms while Clark walks over to the truck, tiptoeing through the muck in an effort to stay clean. Only when he sinks to his ankle in the mud does he give in to the mess. Clark assesses the truck and suggests that they lay down logs to give the tires more purchase. The narrator says he thinks they should just unload the truck, but Ivan is intrigued by Clark’s idea.
The narrator and Freddy are skeptical of Ivan’s plan but choose not to fight him on it. Clark’s preoccupation with logistics, on the other hand, prompts him to suggest this alternate plan. While Clark is explaining his idea, his attempts to stay clean come across as prim and upper-class to the narrator. At the end of the story, though, it’s revealed that the motivation for Clark’s futile attempts at avoiding the mud isn’t him being prim—it’s his fear of his mother’s wrath. Clark benefits from his family’s status and respectable appearance, but it’s clear later that he also suffers from it.
Themes
Freddy and the narrator walk up to the barn for shovels to dig out the ruts, and when they are alone, the narrator realizes how skinny Freddy has become. He then tells Freddy that his family is going to move, though his parents have not told him so. Freddy responds that he hopes they end up staying. Both boys are uncomfortable, and they exchange more cliché phrases to lighten the tension, saying “there’s no place like home” and “home is where the heart is.”
The narrator’s care for Freddy is apparent in his concern for his health, but his guilt persists too. Freddy is also the only person the narrator confides in by sharing his fear of impending upheaval: the narrator doesn’t say so, but it seems like his parents may get a divorce. This moment of sincerity is only possible between the two of them because they are alone for a short while; the narrator would not be so candid if Clark were around. While this conversation could be a moment for the two boys to clear the air around their falling out, the awkwardness is too much or them to handle. As they often do, they fall back into their habit of spurting off idioms to deflect from emotions they are afraid to face.
Themes
Back at the truck, they take turns digging out the wheels. They all struggle to find footing, slipping and kneeling in the mud until they are covered up to their waists. Clark directs Freddy and the narrator as they dig out trenches and lay down wood, yelling instructions at the other two boys. Once they finish engineering the trenches, the three of them push while Ivan starts the truck.
After a day of constant tension and conflicting emotions (most apparent on the narrator’s part), the three boys are finally in unison as they work to dig the trenches. They start out with different approaches, but they soon take on the same tactic, giving into the mess. The mud serves as a symbol of all the concerns and pain they each carry. In the mud they are all equal, just as they are all equally affected by complex emotions, family hardships, and insecurities. And instead of avoiding the mess of those issues, they must dig in deeper until they can get their footing. Like the stuck pickup, it is the only way to break free.
Themes
The wheels spray mud as they spin, covering Clark and Freddy while the narrator misses a majority of the spray. Ivan rocks the truck back and forth. The exhaust fumes make the narrator’s eyes burn, and he watches as a log flies back past Clark’s head. Clark is too focused to notice the near miss. Finally, the truck breaks loose and Ivan drives away.
As the boys push, the narrator’s spot in between Freddy and Clark is symbolic of how the narrator is caught in the middle throughout the story. He is stuck between wealth and poverty, and he is also stuck between these new and old friendships. Clark’s failure to notice the log nearly hitting his head also reinforces the way he uses focus as a coping mechanism. While they push the truck, he is so dialed in that he becomes oblivious to the danger around him. In the same way, he throws himself into complex engineering projects to distract from his problems at home.
Themes
The boys are left exhausted and plastered with muck. Freddy tries to catch his breath, gasping loudly as the three stand in the sudden silence in the absence of the roaring pickup. Clark methodically tries to scrape the mud from his body with a stick, which the narrator finds overly optimistic due to the sheer amount of it. Freddy finally recovers and stands up, looking unwell. He suggests they go back up to the house to get cleaned up, but Clark asks if they can at last go look at the plane canopy in the barn.
Once the truck skids out of the mud, the boys’ moment of unity passes. Once more, the narrator stands between them, observing how different they are. Freddy has given all his strength to the effort and struggles to recover. As always, his problems are on full display, and the narrator feels embarrassed to witness it. What he doesn’t realize is that Clark’s problems are on display, too. What the narrator sees is a futile attempt to scrape mud off with a stick; he does not know that Clark trying to clean up as best he can, hoping to minimize his mother’s reaction.
Themes
The narrator admits that he had hoped all afternoon that Clark would forget about the canopy because he is sure Freddy does not have one. He is shocked when Freddy presents the airplane canopy to them. Though the narrator has been in the barn hundreds of times, he never noticed the canopy hidden among the other junk. Unlike the rest of the things in the barn, the canopy has been dusted and polished. Besides some minimal scratches and the canopy being slightly smaller than the plans accounted for, it is perfect and real. The narrator is sure their plane will get built. Clark asks what Freddy wants for it, and he responds that they can have it for free.
Freddy’s offer to give Clark and the narrator the airplane canopy is a peace offering, a gesture he likely hopes will repair his lost friendship with the narrator. He is eager to please them, taking care to dust the canopy until it shined and even letting them have it for free. While planes are not of particular interest to him, he wants to reconnect with the narrator on these new terms. The narrator is not thinking about Freddy’s motivations at all, though. Instead, he is overwhelmed with hope that the plane will actually come to fruition now. Soon, he’ll be able to fly away.
Themes
They return to the house, and Freddy’s mother insists that the boys take off their messy clothes and wash up. Clark refuses, only washing his face and hands, while Freddy and the narrator each take long showers. Freddy’s mother gives the narrator some of Tanker’s old clothes to wear and sends him home with his muddy clothing wrapped in butcher-paper. Freddy walks Clark and the narrator to the end of the street and then disappears. The two boys stop at the bridge and throw rocks at bottles. The narrator is amped up from their success and by Tanker’s old motorcycle jacket, which he was given to wear home.
The tension that the narrator has been experiencing between his friendships with Freddy and Clark throughout the day seems to evaporate with the acquisition of the canopy. He is buoyant on his hope, taking a long shower to rinse away all the traces of mud. He is only thinking about flying high in the sky, no longer bogged down in the muck. Getting to wear the clothes of someone he idolized only adds to triumphant mood.
Themes
Clark tells the narrator that Freddy wants in on their project, which the narrator is immediately opposed to because they would need to redesign the whole cockpit. He confirms that Freddy will still give them the canopy, then asks Clark what he said to Freddy. Clark assures the narrator that he did not commit to having Freddy join. Clark asks his opinion, and the narrator tells him that Freddy is great, then trails off. Clark responds that they can do whatever the narrator wants, and he says he would like to keep the project between the two of them.
The narrator’s excitement about their plane is abruptly checked when Clark asks him if he wants to include Freddy in their plans. Though the narrator has struggled with guilt over abandoning Freddy, his anxiety about his own family and his fresh hope about his and Clark’s project wins out. He and Freddy share history and care for one another, but the narrator wants to leave that behind. He believes that Freddy will always be mired in the muck of pain. To him, Clark—someone with wealth and composure—is his ticket to being able to break away.
Themes
As they cross through town, Clark asks the narrator to join him for dinner to help moderate his mother’s anger when she finds out what happened to his clothes. Clark drags out the walk home, lingering to look at window displays and car lots. When they finally reach his house, the lights are on and music plays loud enough to reach the street. Clark pauses on the sidewalk, listening. Finally, he determines that the music is from South Pacific, which means that his mother is in a good mood.
What the narrator has assumed about Clark proves to be all wrong. Clark’s happy family is just a façade, something made possible by their wealth, withholding emotion, and lack of presence. Like Freddy and the narrator, Clark has his own issues and anxieties. The calm demeanor and intense focus that the narrator has revered in his friend are just another way to cope with pain that the narrator couldn’t see.
Themes
