Previous
Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Body, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Loss of Innocence
Fate, Luck, and Chance
Confronting Mortality
The Power and Limitation of Friendship
Making Meaning through Stories
Summary
Analysis
Sometimes, Gordie says, the most important things are the hardest ones to talk about, because talking about them seems to diminish them. A secret requires both a willing teller and an understanding listener. His secret involves the first time he saw a dead body, in the summer of 1960, when he was 12 going on 13.
The book begins with the narrator, Gordie, addressing readers directly. Here, he contextualizes the story to come but also asks readers to be the understanding listeners who will not just pay attention to what Gordie says, but will listen for the subtext and meaning, to find the bigger truths behind the small and simple words he uses.
Themes
