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Chapter 32
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Past the Shallows, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Brotherhood, Loyalty, and Hardship
Addiction and Abuse
Tragedy and Blame
Father Figures and Responsibility
The Duality of Nature
Summary
Analysis
Harry looks out his bedroom window, but it is too dark outside to see anything but his own reflection. No one ever bothered to put curtains back up after they fell down long ago, despite Aunty Jean continually saying something needed to be done. Harry does not mind because he likes to see the sky as soon as he wakes up.
Although seemingly insignificant, the lack of curtains on Harry’s window actually reflects the much deeper problem of parental neglect that Miles and Harry face. Like Mr. Roberts and Stuart’s mother, Aunty Jean does not intervene on Miles and Harry’s behalf beyond empty platitudes.
Themes
After Miles finishes washing the dinner dishes, he sits on the edge of Harry’s bed and asks why he did not stay at Stuart’s like they agreed. Harry apologizes and suggests that they go see if George Fuller is back the next day, if the water is too rough for Miles and Dad to go out on the boat. Miles lectures Harry that he is lucky Dad did not “go crazy” and that he should stay home instead of spending time with George. He tells Harry that George is probably gone because he is fishing down the coast, and Harry agrees to stay home.
Miles’s stern attitude toward Harry comes from a place of love. Knowing that no one else will step in to take care of Harry, Miles is willing to take on a fatherly authority over his little brother. Harry, sensing that his brother is looking out for his best interests, heeds Miles’s warning.
Themes
