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Chapter 20
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Same Kind of Different as Me, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Slavery and Racism
Homelessness
Reconciliation
Christian Faith
Charity, Love, and Ego
Summary
Analysis
Denver picks up his narration. After watching Ron and Deborah all those months, Denver is convinced that they are different from most of the volunteers who occasionally show up at the Union Gospel Mission. They seem to actually care about the homeless and don’t talk down to them, but treat them as equals. When Denver hears about the trip to the Caravan, he decides that if others see him going, maybe they’ll have the courage to go to, and he thinks it would do them good. Denver is annoyed by Ron and how often he talks, so he resists him, but eventually feels guilty about it and offers to have coffee with Ron to make up for it.
Despite what Ron and Deborah see as simply a cold, distant person, Denver is appreciative of others and even brave, trying to encourage other homeless people to join the excursion because he thinks it would do them good. This suggests that appearances are deceiving, and the initial prejudices and assumption that people make from them are most often false. This is true particularly in the case of the poor or homeless.
Themes
