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Part 3, Chapter 3
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
The next morning, Bird and Sadie wake and resume their waiting. Before long, Domi’s car pulls up to the cabin, but Margaret is not with her. Ethan gets out of the car and embraces both children. In a flashback, Domi waits for Margaret at the townhouse, but she does not appear. Domi sees the police gathered outside the brownstone and knows her friend got carried away and has been captured. She looks up Ethan’s whereabouts and drives five hours to Boston. When he arrives at home after work, she approaches him, saying she is there about Margaret and Bird.
Margaret’s absence, though familiar, is pivotal for Bird, cementing the loss of his innocent hope for a fairytale ending. He has now lost his mother twice, under very different circumstances. Meanwhile, Domi continues to use her privilege for good by taking responsibility for Sadie and Bird and driving to Ethan.
Themes
The narration shifts to Ethan’s perspective as he arrives home some days earlier to find Bird missing. He sees Bird’s note but does not call the police since doing so will only endanger Margaret and Bird. He waits, hoping his family will contact him. A few days later, he thumbs through the book Bird was trying to take from the library: the story of the boy who drew cats is different from how Margaret used to tell it. He cannot decipher its message. That evening, Domi picks him up, and they drive back to New York. Domi tells Ethan how Margaret’s voice shocked people, bringing some listeners to tears.
Ethan’s worst fears seem confirmed when he finds Bird missing. Again, he is forced to make the difficult decision of doing nothing lest he further endanger his family by alerting the authorities, displaying again how good parenting is not always a simple matter of black and white.
Themes
The narrative zooms out to consider the effect Margaret’s broadcast had on those who heard it. People compare it to Pompeii, noting how it froze everyone in place. Another woman remembers the shared experience of listening to Margaret as a pivotal moment in her life.
In viewing the wider impact of Margaret’s broadcast, the novel suggests that her sacrifice served a purpose. Though the narrative mentions no tangible legal change as a result of Margaret’s protest, the fact that it lingers in her listeners’ minds for years to come illustrates the staying power of art.
Themes
In the present, Domi and Ethan reflect on Margaret’s stubborn passion, which ultimately led to her capture. Bird, hearing this, knows that his mother is still out there: he senses her in the natural world. Bird feels that they will all have to choose whether to keep living as if Margaret meant nothing to them or to build on what she started, regardless of the risk.
Domi and Ethan’s discussion of Margaret’s singular passion and stubbornness recalls the stories Margaret collected from separated families about the details that made their children special. Like those children, Margaret now resides in her loved ones’ memories. Bird does not feel like Margaret failed him; on the contrary, he is proud of her sacrifice, and he seems ready to follow in her steps, refusing to stay silent in the face of oppression. He has, in this sense, come of age.
Themes
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Before Bird and Ethan leave the cabin, Domi pulls him aside. She wishes Bird could have heard Margaret’s broadcast (one day, someone who memorized the broadcast will recite the last portion to him). Domi tells Bird she bought Margaret’s poetry collection years ago and read it over and over. She has since burned the book, but she thinks she has one of the poems memorized. Domi asks Bird if he would like her to write it down, and he realizes that this is a way of finding his mother once again, collecting pieces of her hidden in other people’s memories. He tells Domi he would like that very much.
Returning to the idea of burned books and censorship at the novel’s close suggests that ideas (like people) are not lost as long as someone remembers them. Like Anna Akhmatova sharing her poems by whispering them to acquaintances, Margaret’s poetry lives in Domi’s memory and imagination. In this way, the novel ends on a hopeful note, implying that art and imagination are important tools that can sustain people through times of fearful unrest by giving them hope for a better future.
Themes
