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Identity, Memory, and Responsibility
Themes and Colors
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Restart, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Restart suggests that judging people solely based on their reputations is often an inaccurate way to assess them. By spotlighting Chase Ambrose and Mr. Solway, the novel illustrates how misleading these external perceptions can be. When the novel begins, 13-year-old Chase has more than earned his reputation as a bully—yet after a serious accident, he develops amnesia, forgets the forces that incentivized his bullying, and becomes a much kinder, more thoughtful person. Nevertheless, people continue to judge him by his bad reputation. For example, when Chase helps the unpopular video-club president, Brendan Espinoza, film a comedy short about driving a tricycle through a car wash, the car wash manager assumes Chase bullied Brendan into it and threatens to call the police on him. Brendan, who was responsible for the car-wash idea but has a reputation as a good kid, has to talk the manager into leaving Chase alone. Similarly, when Chase accidentally hits his former bullying victim Joel Weber while trying to protect him from other bullies, Joel and his sister Shoshanna assume Chase hit Joel on purpose. They only realize they misjudged Chase when Brendan shows them video footage proving it was an accident. By contrast, everyone assumes that elderly Korean War veteran Mr. Solway is a hero because President Truman awarded him a Medal of Honor, which serves as a physical symbol of his sterling reputation. Yet Mr. Solway himself denies that he’s a hero: the violent act that won him the medal severely traumatized him, and he’s ambivalent about the morality of war. Thus, Chase and Mr. Solway illustrate how people’s reputations can conflict both with reality and with how they see themselves.
Related Themes from Other Texts
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Reputation vs. Reality ThemeTracker
The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Reputation vs. Reality appears in each chapter of Restart. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
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Reputation vs. Reality Quotes in Restart
Below you will find the important quotes in Restart related to the theme of Reputation vs. Reality.
Chapter 1: Chase Ambrose
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I remember falling.
At least I think I do. Or maybe that’s just because I know I fell.
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Chapter 3: Chase Ambrose
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“This is an awful thing that’s happened to you, but it’s also presenting you with a rare opportunity. You have the chance to rebuild yourself from the ground up, to make a completely fresh start. Don’t squander it! I’m sure you’re not feeling very lucky, but there are millions of people who’d give anything to stand where you stand right now—in front of a completely blank canvas.”
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Chapter 5: Chase Ambrose
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When I got amnesia, I lost thirteen years of myself. I have to replace those memories using what I can pick up from other people. But everyone has a slightly different version of me—Mom, Dad, my friends, the kids at school, even frozen yogurt girl. For all I know, the lunch ladies know me better than anyone else.
Who should I believe?
Chapter 6: Brendan Espinoza
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I’m blown away. My record as a nerd and goody-two-shoes never seemed like much to me before. For sure, it didn’t compare to Chase’s—athlete, bad boy, big man on campus. But it was my reputation, not his, that got us out of a jam back there.
Chapter 12: Chase Ambrose
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“They’re always the enemy when they’re shooting at you, kid. But a dead man doesn’t care what uniform he’s wearing. I’m better off forgetting the whole rotten business, medal and all.”
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Chapter 14: Chase Ambrose
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“I never wore it. Not that I was ashamed of it, but it didn’t feel right—like I’d be saying, ‘Look how great I am. I’ve got a better medal than you. Any dimwit can win a Purple Heart.’”
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Chapter 20: Brendan Espinoza
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That’s when it hits me how this must seem to the teachers. The music room is a disaster area. Instruments, music stands, books, and papers are strewn everywhere, the whole place buried in foam. The school’s three most notorious bullies are right there. One of them—Chase—still wields a fire extinguisher. And their number one target—Joel—is down on the floor with a rapidly swelling face, obviously the victim of an assault.
“It isn’t what it looks like!” I gasp, and then bite my tongue. What if it’s exactly what it looks like?
Chapter 23: Chase Ambrose
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It’s no problem escaping Aaron and Bear.
But I’ll never be able to get away from myself.
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Chapter 28: Shoshanna Weber
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“It was the old you!” Brendan mumbles around a rapidly swelling jaw.
“There’s only one me.” Chase says it so quietly that I can hardly hear him.
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