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Chapter 21
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Bone Sparrow, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Dehumanization, Invisibility, and Refugee Camps
Childhood
Family and Friendship
Storytelling, Escapism, and Hope
Summary
Analysis
Jimmie gets home close to midnight, happier than she’s been in a long time. She knows it’s time, so she climbs up into the attic to her mum’s things. Jimmie finds her mum’s gnome still wearing the sweater her mum knitted him and sits, holding him and listening to her dad and Jonah sleeping downstairs. Closing her eyes, Jimmie imagines listening to her mum singing. When she opens her eyes, she discovers that she’s been singing. Then, Jimmie makes her way downstairs. She catches her arm on some metal on the ladder, but she just licks it and tells the gnome that saliva has healing properties. Subhi would be pleased. Jimmie climbs into bed fully clothed and can smell her mother’s scent clinging to the gnome. The lump in her throat is finally gone. She’ll ask her dad to help her get the garden started tomorrow, but tonight, she falls asleep smiling.
Thanks to Subhi, Jimmie finally feels ready to confront her grief and visit her mum’s items in the attic. Singing her mum’s song allows Jimmie to feel close to her mum, and rescuing her mum’s gnome gives Jimmie one more thing to remind her of her mum and of the good times they shared. Deciding to ask her dad for help restarting the garden also shows that Jimmie has decided it's time to move forward—her grieving period is over, and now, she can live her life.
Themes
