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Chapter 32
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
Vern dies in a housefire likely ignited by someone’s stray cigarette when he’s 18 years old. Teddy’s poor vision and hearing keep him out of the Army. He dies in 1971 or 1972 after driving his car into a utility pole in an intoxicated haze.
In Chapter 24, Gordie foreshadowed these deaths, linking them to the goocher coin toss. And while it’s possible to see how Vern’s and Teddy’s choices help to hasten their deaths, both die in horrific accidents, poignantly reminding readers of the large role chance plays in life.
Themes
Chris enrolls in the academically rigorous classes with Gordie, much to the chagrin of his parents (who think he’s putting on airs), the teachers (who dislike his reputation), and most of his friends (who declare him a “pussy” for caring about school). He must work incredibly hard to make up for blowing off his elementary education, but he sticks to it. He graduates from high school, goes to college, and starts law school. But in his second year, he tries to break up a fight at a fast-food joint and one of the belligerents fatally stabs him. When Gordie reads about it in the newspaper, he weeps, but in private.
For a while, it seems like Chris will escape the bad luck of the goocher coin toss and his family’s long history of bad behavior. The degree to which he succeeds points toward the power of the friendship he shares with Gordie. As if to repay him for the love and support Chris gave him in the past, Gordie steps up for his friend, too. But death comes for everyone, and ultimately the book claims that no one can outrun their fate. Chris’s death prevents him from fully making good on his attempt to change his life.
Themes
