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An Improvement to Society
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Patron Saints of Nothing, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Truth, Adolescence, and Justice
Responsibility, Guilt, and Blame
Culture and Belonging
Death and Meaning
Summary
Analysis
On Sunday night, Jay is browsing the Internet in his room. His parents assume he’s doing homework, but school seems pointless now. Instead, Jay is doing research about Jun’s death—it feels like penance. But he can’t find a mention of Jun’s legal name online, which is weird, since Tito Maning is a police officer. All Jay finds are articles about the drug war. Apparently, the international community has condemned Duterte, but they’ve done little else.
Jay’s obsession with Jun’s death stems both from grief and guilt; the fact that research feels like “penance” confirms that Jay feels partly responsible for Jun’s death. Jay’s realization that the international community hasn’t done anything about Duterte makes clear that Jay wants someone to be held responsible for what happened to Jun, but also communicates just how little Jun has known, up until now, about his birth country..
Themes
Online, there are tons of photos of Filipinos cradling loved one’s corpses on the street. Jay feels that he needs to confront the horror of it all, even though it reminds him of Jun. Most Philippine websites praise Duterte, which makes sense to Jay once he learns that Duterte’s main critic was jailed for drug charges (on Duterte’s orders). Jay does find a subversive Philippine Instagram account entitled “GISING NA PH!” The account opposes the drug war by posting photos of Filipinos with pictures of their loved ones, all of whom were killed by police.
The information Jay finds confirms that the situation in the Philippines is complicated. Duterte seems to engage in dictatorial behavior, as it’s implied he trumps up charges to imprison his critics. But the Philippine population seems divided about Duterte’s war on drugs: some in favor, some against. Though even that dichotomy is hard to measure, as those in favor might in fact just fear Duterte. What seems clear is that Jun doesn’t know enough about the Philippines.
Themes
Later, Jay’s mom and dad come to Jay’s room, although his dad clearly doesn’t want to be there. Jay’s dad is friendly to his patients but distant at home. Jay’s mom asks if Jay wants to talk, but Jay doesn’t—he wants to take action. Eventually, Jay’s parents leave him alone, warning him not to stay up too late doing schoolwork. Jay’s dad even says there’s more to life than school, which Jay thinks is hilariously out-of-character. The family came to the U.S. for the kids’ education, after all. Jay overhears his dad saying that he doesn’t understand Jay.
There’s lots of father/adolescent-son failure to connect going on here. From Jay’s father’s behavior with his patient’s it’s clear that he is a caring person, but there seems to be an uncrossable bridge between Jay and his father. Jay responds even to his father’s caring comment by noticing its hypocrisy. Jay’s determination to do something about Jun’s death again demonstrates his guilt and grief, and perhaps also an adolescent idea that there is something simple that can be done to fix all this.
Themes
On Monday morning, Jay is late to school and hasn’t done his homework, since he no longer feels like school matters. Seth wonders why Jay didn’t respond to his texts all weekend and why he’s acting like a jerk now. Jay brushes him off and walks out of school entirely, saying he isn’t feeling well. Seth follows, to Jay’s annoyance. It’s sunny out, which is the opposite of how Jay feels. As the boys walk out on the street, Jay notices how different the suburban landscape looks from the photos Jay saw of the Philippines.
In the aftermath of Jun’s death, Jay is searching for what matters. That he now is blowing off school at least partly mirrors Jun’s own dropping out years earlier. Jay can’t enjoy his own life when he now knows about the suffering in the Philippines. Meanwhile, Jay is basing his image of the Philippines off of his limited research. Still, Jay is a teenager who’s grieving: that’s why he’s a jerk to Seth, and that’s why he can’t focus on school.
Themes
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Frustrated, Jay says that there are so many bad things in the world and everyone ignores them. Seth argues that people have their own problems to worry about, like school and jobs. Seth asks if Jay wants to talk about anything, and Jay admits that his cousin died and tells Seth how. Seth is apologetic and says that he’s read about how crazy Duterte is. Jay is annoyed that Seth knows more about the drug war than Jay ever did.
Jay’s sudden frustration about people’s selfishness is clearly the result of his own guilt: now he’s taking Jun’s concerns as his own as a kind of atonement. Seth’s response might be taken as selfish, and yet it’s also true. Still, in this moment Jay does open up to Seth, but with the unhappy result that he realizes even more fully how much he doesn’t know about his birth country and culture.
Themes
Seth says that he forgot Jay was Filipino, since Jay is “basically white.” This comment stuns Jay, and he asks what Seth means. Trying to backtrack, Seth says that he doesn’t see color. Jay knows that’s not what Seth was trying to say, even though the comment is pretty problematic regardless, since it implies both that white is “default” and that differences are bad. Seth says that Jay acts like everyone at their school, which is majority-white. Jay is hurt by this and walks away. Seth doesn’t understand why Jay is mad, but this makes sense to Jay, because Seth literally can’t understand. Jay thinks there’s clearly not much depth to their friendship.
In this moment, Jay is forced to confront the degree to which he doesn’t belong. His best friend doesn’t see him for who he is—and in fact claims that he can’t see Jay’s heritage, denies that Jay even has a different heritage, and implies that whiteness is the standard against which everything else must be measured. Seth’s comment is the second time in a handful of days that Jay has been told that his Filipino heritage doesn’t count—the first was when his mom told Jay that he was Filipino American and therefore couldn’t judge what was happening in the Philippines. Jay’s mother and best friend are—without intending to—telling him that he belongs nowhere at all.
Themes
