Previous
Chapter 14
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
Gordie, Vern, Chris, and Teddy stop where the tracks enter the cool, shady woods on the far side of the river. Vern immediately goes off to relieve himself, and his friends tease him about pooping his pants in fear. But they were all scared, and they know it. As his terror subsides, Gordie finds himself suffused with a powerful feeling of peace. He thinks he can understand a little why people become daredevils: it makes him feel powerful to have risked his “jalopy body.”
After passing their first two tests (which, truth be told, mostly happened to Gordie), the boys take a break. The topography matches their journey, becoming cool and restful just when they need it. Gordie’s feeling of peace could be attributed to the adrenaline hit. But it’s also possible to see this as another step on his journey toward adulthood. Now, for the first time, he’s starting to understand his own mortality. And while the thought of death is terrifying, it makes pleasant things more delicious by contrast.
Themes
While they rest, Chris asks Gordie to tell “the” story. All his friends know that Gordie wants to be a writer when he grows up, and sharing his stories makes him feel both proud and shy. His work mostly includes juvenile horror stories and a series following some American GIs trying to recapture a French village called Le Dio from the Nazis during World War II. Those are Teddy’s favorites. In his childhood, writing is easy and pleasurable. But as an adult, it feels harder and less fun even though he’s gotten better at it.
Stories can help us understand the world and our place in it, but they can also offer an escape. The Le Dio stories provide such an escapist fantasy for Teddy, who longs to follow in his dad’s footsteps and become a soldier. Chris asks for “the” story as an antidote to the moment of extreme danger and stress the boys have just survived.
Themes
Encouraged by Chris, Gordie begins to describe the fictional town of Gretna, Maine, and his protagonist, a boy named Davie Hogan, whom the other kids mock and call “Lard Ass.” The story explains how he took revenge on his town during its annual pie-eating contest. The prize is $5, and Davie finds himself up against Bill Traynor, the reigning champion; Calvin Spier, the fattest adult in town; and the high school principal, Hubert Gretna the Third.
By asking for a specific story here, Chris implies that it, too, can be used as an interpretive lens through which to view the events that surround it. In that light, it’s notable that Gordie describes a single, bullied boy and his act of revenge. In contrast, he’s secure in his own group of friends and they’re seeking adventure and self-knowledge. Lard Ass’s story comments on Gordie’s by contrast.
Themes
