Hope, Caring, and Beauty Theme Analysis

Ed believes his community to be generally hopeless, because in his opinion, everyone in his neighborhood is self-centered. However, after Ed receives his mission to help others through a series of playing cards with unknown origins, he begins to notice the beauty of how other people express caring for others. He also inspires hope himself by showing others his care for them. Ed begins to see the beauty in his community and his life through the care he shows toward others and through the love he sees others demonstrate as well.

Before completing his mission of helping others, Ed views his town as ugly because he believes his community members do not care for each other. Ed describes his neighborhood by saying there are “plenty of teenage pregnancies there, a plethora of shithead fathers who are unemployed, and mothers like mine who smoke, drink.” These details construct an image of a community where the people who are supposed to care for each other, mainly family members, often fail to due to issues like poverty. When Ed follows the instructions on the playing card to his first mission, he discovers a local man who repeatedly sexually assaults his wife. Ed wonders why the world does not hear the assault and stop the man, but then he realizes that the world can hear but “it doesn’t care.” This incident reinforces Ed’s belief that people in general do not care about the suffering of others.

However, Ed soon begins to notice the beauty in the world by witnessing the kindness and strength of others. The first card leads Ed to helping a local teenage track runner named Sophie, who is not the fastest runner at her competitions but shows a great level of determination. Ed comes to appreciate the strength of her spirit and recognize her internal beauty. This shows how the mission to help others allows Ed to see the beauty inside individuals within his community. Similarly, Ed helps another family by decorating their home with brand-new Christmas lights. Ed watches the lights illuminate the yard and feels an incredible sense of “power and glory.” The act of kindness Ed committed for the family allows him to experience a moment of beauty. While Ed looks at the lights with the family, he sees the husband lovingly kiss his wife. This moment contrasts with the brutality of the other husband whom Ed witnessed assaulting his wife. When Ed sees this example of tenderness, he realizes that some people are truly beautiful on the inside. Thus, by helping out this family and othes, Ed is able to recognize that beauty and love exist in the world despite the ugliness he has seen. The husband of the family Ed tells Ed that no one else in the neighborhood ever did anything to help them. Ed’s mission not only shows him that there are caring, beautiful people in the world, but also allows him to show others that kindness exists in the community.

Ed’s perspective at the beginning of the novel is pessimistic because he can only see the ugliness and selfishness present in his society. However, by helping others he begins to see the beauty and hope present within individuals. What’s more, Ed is able to spread this beauty by being an example of a caring individual for others. Ed’s transformation in perspective shows that if one wants to see the beauty of their community, they should begin by caring for others.