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Chapter 3: 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
Brendan is filming cliques in the cafeteria and commenting on them as if he were making a nature documentary. When he sees Chase, he calls him an “apex predator” and “Footballus herois.” Chase, carrying his meal, approaches Brendan. Brendan is terrified that Chase may realize Brendan was mocking him. One time, Chase and his friends made Brendan stand against the pole while they played tetherball until the tether had tied Brendan to the pole—and then they left him there. Chase asks whether he can sit with Brendan, who (utterly baffled) says sure.
Brendan treats the social hierarchies in the middle-school cafeteria as if they were as natural as differences between various kinds of animal. When he calls Chase a “predator” and a “Footballus herois”—a fake scientific name, as if football heroes were a species like “homo sapiens”—he implies that Chase’s past cruel behavior and identity as a bully are as impossible to change as his species. Yet Chase’s actions upend Brendan’s assumption that Chase’s identity is static and unchanging: Brendan thinks that Chase wants to bully him, but Chase just wants to eat lunch with someone.
Themes
When Chase puts a napkin across his lap, Brendan is shocked by his “civilized” behavior. He realizes that the rumor that Chase has amnesia may be true. When Chase has trouble cutting his chicken with his arm in a sling, Brendan offers to help. Though Chase turns him down, Brendan comes around the table and does it anyway, which earns him a disapproving look from Shoshanna passing by. Chase thanks him.
Chase’s “civilized” behavior surprises Brendan, emphasizing that Chase’s past behavior toward Brendan was barbaric. Yet the boys get along now that Chase has lost his memory, which suggests that Chase’s past behavior was the product of his environment, not his essential character—nurture, not nature.
Themes
When Brendan tries to sit back down in his own seat, he falls—and sees Bear, who is holding Brendan’s chair. Bear puts the chair down on top of Brendan like a cage. Aaron, standing with Bear and some other football players, tells Chase he’s “at the wrong table.” Chase removes the chair from Brendan, helps him up, and apologizes. The football players again call for Chase to come sit with them. Brendan tries explaining to Chase that the football players are his best friends, but Chase seems almost unhappy with this fact. Brendan returns to his seat, checks his camera, and realizes it captured audio of the whole interaction.
Amnesiac Chase apologizes for his friends’ bullying and dismissive behavior toward Brendan, again showing that Chase’s past bullying behavior wasn’t a product of his essential character but of his environment. He even seems distressed that he’s friends with bullies, which suggests that without his memories of and loyalty toward them clouding his judgment, he judges them negatively. Aaron’s claim that it’s “wrong” for Chase to sit with Brendan, by contrast, shows that Aaron—like Brendan—believes middle-school social hierarchies are natural and can’t or shouldn’t be changed.
Themes
