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Chapter 29: 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
To Brendan’s shock, Kimberly has started liking him back—she admires how he defended her and Shoshanna from Bear during the fight at the assisted living facility, though she claims she’s mostly just surprised he survived. Brendan is no longer jealous of Kimberly’s crush on Chase, either, because he thinks Chase and Shoshanna might like each other.
Just as Frank came to appreciate Chase’s strength of character as much as his physical strength and athleticism, so Kimberly comes to appreciate Brendan’s bravery even though he lacks physical strength: there is more than one way to be an admirable boy or man. Moreover, Kimberly’s appreciation of Brendan’s bravery suggests that he misjudged her when he assumed that she would only like him if he gained social status somehow.
Themes
Chase has started playing in football games again; the video club, including Shoshanna, attended his first game back. The football coach so admired the footage they took that he made them the team’s “official videographers.” Even Joel is now the leader of the pep band. All the football players (except Aaron and Bear) have started being friendlier to the video club, and Chase is part of the football team and video club—in fact, the video he and Shoshanna made about Mr. Solway won the National Video Journalist Contest.
The reconciliation between the video club and the football team—as well as Chase’s participation in both groups—shows that groups of kids don’t need to hate each other just because they have different interests. So long as one interest group doesn’t bully the other—as the football team used to bully the video club—the kids can celebrate each other’s talents and collaborate productively, as when the video club films football games or when the musicians play at pep rallies.
Themes
The video club has “adopted” Mr. Solway, though he won’t let them refer to him as their “official war hero,” as he doesn’t believe he’s a hero and doesn’t like war. Brendan thinks he’s a hero just because he stood up for Chase in court, but when he asks Mr. Solway about his heroism, Mr. Solway claims not to remember and tells Brendan to ask Chase what that’s like. Actually, Chase is remembering more; sometimes, Brendan sees Chase looking miserable and deduces that he’s recalled another awful thing he did in the past.
Mr. Solway’s refusal to accept the “official war hero” title shows that, while he is willing to use his reputation to help his friends, he still doesn’t “believe his own hype:” there’s a large gap between how other people think of him and how he sees himself. Meanwhile, Chase is proving that the judge and Shoshanna were right to trust him by continuing to despise his past actions as a bully.
Themes
Brendan has realized that the best thing about video club isn’t the possibility of creating a viral video, but the people with whom it connects you—like Mr. Solway, or Kimberly (now his girlfriend), or Chase (formerly his bully, now his close friend). He does, however, have a viral video now: Kimberly uploaded the footage of him trapped in a tuba and covered in fire-extinguisher foam to YouTube, and the video now has hundreds of thousands of views. This unexpected success shows Brendan that “anything is possible,” including his romance with Kimberly and Chase becoming a kind person.
This last passage emphasizes that social status—whether it comes from viral videos or football—matters less than good relationships. Yet the novel ends on a humorous note by revealing that viral videos and good relationships are compatible: Brendan’s new girlfriend, a terrible videographer, managed to make a viral YouTube video of him, so “anything is possible.”
Themes
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