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Chapter 25: Chase Ambrose
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
Joel thinks that his family members are more disturbed by his bruise than he is. His parents worry that bringing him home might have been a mistake, even though he assures them he was miserable at Melton. Joel is worried about the bullying too—somehow, it made him feel like he deserved to suffer—but he’s more upset that Chase’s apparent reformation fooled him. Shoshanna, meanwhile, keeps describing the horrific tortures she’d like to inflict on Chase. When Joel tells her she would never actually do those things to a person, she says she’s talking about “Alpha Rat,” not “another human being.”
The novel has previously made clear that Chase, Aaron, and Bear’s bullying of Joel harmed him psychologically by making him afraid all the time. Here, readers learn that it also harmed him by undermining his self-esteem, making him believe he somehow deserved their bullying. Thus, the novel drives home that bullying’s negative effects extend beyond short-term physical or emotional pain. Shoshanna has reverted to calling Chase “Alpha Rat” and denies that he's a human being, emphasizing that she stereotypes bullies as animals acting on predatory instinct rather than people with flaws who might be capable of change.
Themes
As Joel and Shoshanna walk to Brendan’s house, Joel wonders aloud what Brendan wants. When they run into Kimberly in front of Brendan’s, Shoshanna asks whether Kimberly got Brendan’s text too. Kimberly nods and says Chase will be coming as well. Shoshanna tries to pull Joel back the way they came. Brendan exits the house and asks where they’re going. When Shoshanna says neither she nor Joel will be interacting with Chase, Brendan blurts that he has video evidence that Chase didn’t mean to hurt Joel. Shoshanna insists they’re leaving anyway, but Joel says he’ll stay: he wants to know what happened.
Despite the bullying that Joel has suffered, he has decided to face his painful experiences; moreover, he refuses to pass judgment on who Chase is without seeing all the available evidence—even though Chase has treated him terribly in the past. Joel’s bravery, curiosity, and fairness in this moment demonstrate how he has matured over the course of the novel.
Themes
Joel, Shoshanna, and Kimberly enter Brendan’s house. They wait about 30 minutes for Chase. Then Shoshanna claims Chase is indifferent to the situation and tells Joel they should leave; Joel, standing his ground, asks Brendan to play the video without Chase there. Brendan does. Joel is apprehensive about witnessing Aaron and Bear bully him, but he finds it easier to handle than he expected: being bullied is an event in his life, not his whole identity. He feels like returning home has given him “back to himself.”
Watching the bullying from the objective, external perspective of a camera helps Joel acknowledge the bad things that have happened to him without letting them define him. When Joel recognizes that being a victim of bullying doesn’t define who he is, he regains control over his identity: in his words, he is given “back to himself.”
Themes
Chase enters the video. Joel carefully watches as Chase and Bear struggle over the fire extinguisher, Chase pulls it away, and the extinguisher hits Joel’s face. Brendan pauses the video and says that it was an accident. Joel seconds Brendan’s interpretation. Meanwhile, Shoshanna’s internal conflict is showing all over her face; after a pause, she says that Chase still lied. Brendan cedes the point but asks whether Shoshanna wouldn’t lie too rather than be punished for bullying she hadn’t committed. Shoshanna claims she’d never face that dilemma because she doesn’t spend time with “pond scum.”
Shoshanna has difficulty admitting that she was wrong—that she misjudged Chase based on his horrible pre-accident behavior and bad reputation. When she has to admit that Chase hit Joel by accident, she comes up with other criticisms: Chase lied, and he wouldn’t have felt pressured to lie if he didn’t hang out with “pond scum,” (Aaron and Bear). In other words, even though Chase isn’t a bully anymore, Shoshanna thinks he hasn’t changed enough because he’s still too loyal to his bully friends.
Themes
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Joel tells Shoshanna that they should talk to Chase. Unexpectedly, Shoshanna agrees. When Brendan suggests that they should apologize, Shoshanna says that’s not her priority. When Kimberly, frustrated, asks where Chase is anyway, Brendan calls Chase’s mom and finds out that Chase ran off to the assisted living facility. Joel asks whether Chase forgot about Brendan’s summons. Brendan says no: Chase texted earlier, confirming he’d come. Shoshanna suggests that they all head to the assisted living facility.
Brendan thinks the video-club kids should apologize to Chase for assuming that he was bullying again, implying that they owed Chase loyalty and generosity. Shoshanna disagrees. Implicitly, she suggests that, given Chase’s history as a bully, it made sense to assume he was acting badly; she shouldn’t have to apologize for making a rational assumption, even if it was “disloyal” to a new friendship.
Themes
