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Part 1, Chapter 8
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Our Missing Hearts, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Free Speech, Patriotism, and the Corruption of Truth
Surveillance, Fear, and Discrimination
The Power of Art and Imagination
Parental Responsibility, Rights, and Experience
Privilege, Silence, and Complicity
Summary
Analysis
Here, Margaret’s perspective takes over as she views Bird for the first time in three years. Margaret senses her son’s distrust as she leads him through the darkened house. She explains that she knew he would be smart enough to figure out her clues: someone had told her so, though she does not reveal who. The neighbors think this house is abandoned, so the windows are covered to hide the light. Margaret’s quarters are sparse, and it is clear she is living rough. She leads Bird to a room she has made up for him. Margaret feels her son is speaking a new language, “all gestures and subtext,” that she cannot quite grasp.
Margaret and Bird’s reunion feels anti-climactic after all it took for Bird to find her. Discovering his mother hiding out in a crumbling brownstone clashes with Bird’s previous imaginings of her as a heroic leader of the resistance, uncovering an uncomfortable truth: parents are only humans. On the other hand, Margaret seems as nervous about seeing Bird as she is excited; here, the familiar parental experience of growing apart from one’s children is exacerbated by her self-imposed distance.
Themes
Margaret remembers Bird as a toddler. He’d been so emotionally sensitive to the world around him. He seems different now, guarded and scarred. Alone in his room, Bird feels similarly conflicted about the woman his mother is now, hiding here in this strange house. He sleeps and wakes to his mother watching him. She leads him upstairs to the roof. Bird is astounded at the size of the city spread out before them, and Margaret glimpses briefly the wonderment from his childhood.
After so many years spent apart, Margaret sees clearly how living in the flawed world has changed Bird. His defensiveness points to fear and past hurt she can only guess at, which in turn brings feelings of guilt. Not only has Bird lost portions of his innocence, then, but he has lost the chance to experience such change with his mother present and supporting him.
Themes
Margaret only comes to the roof at night, when no one will see her. Bird knows nothing of her life before he was born, but now he asks her about it. She tells him she worked as a bike messenger during the Crisis, making deliveries and scraping by like everyone else. She asks after Ethan, knowing she cannot call him and let him know that Bird is safe. She hopes Ethan still trusts her. Bird asks Margaret why she left. She promises to tell him everything if he will listen.
In highlighting Bird’s ignorance of Margaret’s life during the Crisis, the novel illustrates Bird’s former innocence and self-absorption. Having grown so much since she left, Bird is now ready to hear Margaret’s story and all its adult complexities. Though brief, this moment points to the difficulty of protecting one’s children from the world while also preparing them to navigate it independently.
Themes
