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Chapter 4
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
Teddy, Chris, and Gordie know where the train tracks cross Back Harlow Road. It’s 20 or 30 miles from where Ray Brower went missing, but they can imagine him ending up there if he was trying to follow the tracks back to civilization. They agree to go with Vern, thinking they can report the body and become heroes. Vern initially balks at the idea, since it will tip off Billy that he eavesdropped. Chris points out that Billy can’t say anything without bringing up the stolen car. The boys plan a cover story for their parents. Chris runs the most risk in going; his dad is a mean alcoholic who regularly beats him so severely he can’t go to school. The town’s truant officer knows about the abuse, but he doesn’t do anything about it. No one—including Chris—expects anything good from the Chamberses, even though Chris is Gordie’s smartest friend.
Although the boys decide it’s not impossible for Ray Brower to have ended up where he did, it’s not the likeliest story, either. They seem to have doubts about the adult story from the very beginning. By immediately launching into an extended description of the abuse Chris suffers, Gordie subtly suggests that Ray might be the victim of similar violence. The damning portrait he paints of the Chambers family contributes to the book’s sense that fate plays a major role in the way a person’s life goes. Although Chris is smart and kind (he’s willing to risk a beating to find Ray Brower and give him and his family some peace), it seems almost impossible for him to escape the Chamberses’ reputation.
Themes
