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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Restart, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity, Memory, and Responsibility
Reputation vs. Reality
Masculinity
Social Hierarchies and Bullying
Loyalty
Summary
Analysis
Chase remembers falling—but he wonders whether he only thinks he remembers it because he knows it happened. When he wakes up, someone demands a doctor. Blinking, he sees a dark-haired woman break down crying. A young man (Johnny) comforts her. A doctor appears and asks Chase how he’s feeling. Chase, sore and confused, asks who the people in the room are. When the woman, shocked, calls him “Chase” and identifies herself as his mom, he realizes he can’t remember anything. He asks whether he’s Chase and demands a mirror. His mom gives him her mirrored compact; he doesn’t recognize his reflection.
The doctor tells Chase he has amnesia caused by a fall from his roof. Chase wonders why he can remember the word “amnesia” but nothing about himself or why he was on the roof. The young man, Johnny, Chase’s college-aged older brother, explains that Chase often climbs through his bedroom window onto the roof. When Chase asks whether anyone warned him of the danger, his mom says she did for years, but she gave up because nothing bad happened and he was “such an athlete.”
Chase has some impersonal, factual knowledge—he can speak and knows the definitions of various words, for example—but no knowledge of himself or his motivations, and this foreshadows a journey of self-discovery as he tries to understand his past self. Here, readers learn that Chase’s mom has tried and failed to control Chase’s behavior in the past, in part because he was “such an athlete,” hinting that the social status athleticism confers on boys like Chase may have made him harder to discipline.
Themes
The doctor explains that amnesia comes in many forms; Chase’s amnesia has taken only his identity and memories. When Chase sarcastically calls himself “lucky,” the doctor points out that at least he remembers how to care for himself—he won’t need toilet training. Chase admits to himself that that is lucky; he doesn’t want to know how his bathroom needs were handled during his four-day coma.
Chase’s acknowledgment that he doesn’t want to know how the hospital dealt with his bodily functions during his coma is humorous—yet it may also hint that there are other events in Chase’s past he won’t want to remember.
Themes
When the doctor asks whether Chase can remember anything, Chase concentrates—and recalls an approximately four-year-old girl in a lacy dress. His mom asks whether it’s Helene. When Chase asks who Helene is, Johnny explains that she’s their half-sister. The doctor asks whether Chase and Helene are close, and Chase’s mom points out that Chase’s dad (Frank) has only come to the hospital once, during which time he yelled and hit the ER wall. This is characteristic of Chase’s relationship to her former husband and “his new family.”
Chase’s mom talks about Chase’s dad’s “new” family as if she, Johnny, and Chase are an “old” model of car that Chase’s dad traded in. This phrasing implies that she resents Chase’s dad. The behavior she attributes to him—yelling and punching walls in moments of stress, not visiting his comatose son—reveals that he adheres to an aggressive, emotionally closed-off model of masculinity.
Themes
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Chase says he doesn’t remember Helene, but the girl was blond. His mom says Helene is a brunette. When Chase asks the doctor whether he’s “crazy,” the doctor replies that Chase’s ability to remember the girl means Chase’s “access” to his memory is offline, but his memories still exist; some should return. He asks Chase to try to remember more about the girl. Dr. Cooperman determines Chase has only a concussion and a shoulder injury. When Chase’s mom drives him home, he sees the window that opens onto the roof. It’s lower than he’d have guessed; he thinks wryly that that feels like “an insult to [his] manliness.”
The doctor’s assurance that Chase will regain “access” to his memories and his recommendation that Chase try to recall the little blond girl both foreshadow that remembering more about the blond girl will be important to Chase’s character arc later. Chase’s half-joking thought that the low window is “an insult to [his] manliness” shows that he implicitly believes cultural ideas about boys needing to be physically tough but also acknowledges that they can be taken to ridiculous extremes—e.g. thinking it’s unmanly to sustain a concussion after falling off a roof.
Themes
When they enter the house, people inside yell “surprise.” A stocky man grabs Chase and gives him a noogie. Chase’s mom, horrified, tells the man (whom she calls Frank) that Chase has a concussion. The man (who calls Chase’s mom Tina) retorts that Chase is an “all-county running back.” Johnny (who calls Frank “Dad”) points out that the doctor said Chase couldn’t play football this year. In response, Chase’s dad insults the doctor for being skinny and tells Tina not to make Chase “a wimp” like Johnny.
Frank gives Chase a noogie even though Chase has a concussion, refers to Chase’s status as an “all-county running back” as if prowess in football makes one immune to head injuries, and calls his own son Johnny “a wimp”—behaviors suggesting recklessness about physical safety and an excessive investment in sports and traditional masculine toughness.
Themes
Tina demands to know why Frank came, when she’s already asked him not to use his keys. Frank retorts that he pays the mortgage and says he wanted to see “the conquering hero.” Chase denies that he’s a hero; Frank’s boldness discomfits him. He’s introduced to Frank’s wife Corinne and their daughter Helene. Noticing that they seem uneasy, he wonders what he “ever did to them.” Tina demands that Frank leave so Chase can rest. As Frank, Corinne, and Helene leave, Chase compliments Helene’s doll; she recoils in fear.
Frank calls Chase a “conquering hero,” indicating that he prefers to see his adolescent son as an idealized masculine victor rather than a physically vulnerable, injured boy. Chase’s worry about what he “ever did to” Corinne and Helene, combined with Helene’s fear of him, may hint that Chase has had negative interactions with his father’s second family he can’t now remember.
Themes
Tina leads Chase up to his room. When she sees him notice a big crack in his door, she says she likely shouldn’t have let him and his friends play sports in the house. Inside his room, he finds trophies, newspaper clippings about his football victories, and a cracked cell phone without charge. He finds a charger and plugs the phone in. When it comes alive, he sees the home screen is a selfie of him with two other large boys on Halloween; he’s holding a “mangled” jack-o’-lantern on the tip of a bat and looking pleased with himself. He wonders: “What kind of person am I?”
When Tina says she shouldn’t have let Chase and his friends play sports in the house, the novel again hints that Tina has found adolescent Chase difficult to parent in part due to his masculine athleticism. When Chase wonders, “What kind of person am I?” after looking at a photo of himself apparently smashing pumpkins on Halloween, it highlights that Chase—lacking memories about himself—will have to use external evidence like photos and other people’s testimonies to reconstruct his identity.
Themes
