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Chapter 6
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
Subhi is suddenly wide awake and anxious. He has to ask for a story every night—that’s the rule. It’s how he makes sure Maá remembers Ba and her stories. Panicky, Subhi sits up. Everyone else is asleep aside from the Shakespeare duck, but Subhi tells the duck he doesn’t count.
Subhi relies on rituals, like asking Maá for a story every night, to feel safe. Now that he’s missed one night, nothing feels okay. Subhi also seems to feel singlehandedly responsible for caring for Maá’s mental health, which is a lot for a child his age to take on. In short, Subhi’s circumstances have forced him to mature before he's ready.
Themes
Normally, there are lots of people awake on nights that the Jackets shine their flashlights into tents to harass refugees. But on nights that the Night Sea comes, Subhi is the only one awake. Since everyone is asleep, Subhi wonders if the Night Sea is coming. Maá says that the Night Sea must make everyone sleep. She says that Subhi can hear and see the Night Sea because he listens to the earth’s stories, a thought that often helps Subhi fall asleep. He can hear the water outside and wants to see it. Maybe if he sees the Night Sea, it’ll be okay that he didn’t ask Maá for a story. Maybe he’ll see Eli’s whale. Grabbing the duck, Subhi climbs over Queeny and creeps out of the tent. There’s no sea, but the wind is swirling—and there’s a girl in the dust.
Maá, like Subhi, can see the fantastical things like the Night Sea. She offers some explanation for why Subhi can see it. The fact that he listens to her may indicate that as a child, Subhi is naturally more perceptive—and imaginative. Subhi leans on his imagination to protect himself from his violent and nonsensical reality. This is why he hopes that seeing the Night Sea will essentially make up for his “mistake” of forgetting to ask Maá for a story.
Themes
The duck grouses that Subhi promised him a sea, and Subhi begins to argue back before shoving the duck into his pocket. He doesn’t need this girl thinking he’s crazy. The girl doesn’t move. Subhi can tell she’s not “one of us,” as her hair is red and frizzy and she has shoes, a backpack, and a real book. The girl leans down and puts her hand in the dirt, like one might feel for a heartbeat. Then the girl smiles. Subhi remembers Maá talking about Subhi’s great-great-great-grand-ba, who had a guardian angel, but the angel disappeared when he lost his foot. Maá said that someday the angel would return, and maybe this girl is their guardian angel. However, the girl then hocks up a ball of snot. She’s clearly not an angel.
Here, the narration explicitly reveals that Subhi is talking to himself—Subhi only becomes self-conscious about talking to a rubber duck around a stranger (and the stranger is presumably Jimmie). Since Subhi has only really seen aid workers and Jackets from Outside, it’s a big deal that he’s now meeting a kid his own age who has a wildly different life experience.
Themes
The girl shrugs as though they’ve been talking this whole time. As she turns away, she asks Subhi if they have any bikes in here. Subhi shakes his head. Eli used to tell him about the bike he used to ride to school and to his grandmother’s house. Bikes won’t work in here, though—there are too many fences. The girl asks for Subhi’s name, but she doesn’t share her name. Subhi asks if her book is hers and then nods vigorously when she asks if he can read. Then, the girl walks away and seems to disappear. Subhi sits in the dirt for a long time. When the Shakespeare duck starts quacking, Subhi pulls him out of his pocket. The duck observes that the girl didn’t give her name.
The girl (Jimmie) asks about bikes because hearing that the kids in the detention center don’t have bikes makes it clear that her classmate was lying, and that life in the detention center isn’t a paradise. Subhi, for instance, has only ever heard about bikes in Eli’s stories.
Themes
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