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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Things We Didn’t See Coming, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Morality and Survival
Apocalypse vs. Routine
Body as Currency vs. Body as Liability
Wealth, Privilege, and Value
Care and Companionship under Crisis
Summary
Analysis
The narrator helps his father pack the car for a trip to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Since the narrator is young, this is the first time he’s ever been allowed to help Dad with this task. Though the journey to the grandparents’ farm is short, Dad packs all kinds of supplies: cans of soup, peanut butter, even a first-aid kit. The narrator works quickly, as Dad has asked him “not to make a big deal” of their trip to the neighbors. In passing, the narrator calls his mother “Cate,” despite the fact that Cate would prefer to be called “Mother.”
Dad’s packing list for the trip suggests that he is preparing for disaster: the foods are non-perishables (meaning that they would persist even if people lost power), and the first-aid kit looks ahead to physical danger. The fact that the young narrator calls his mother “Cate”—presumably the name his father uses for her—suggests that the narrator is, even at this young age, consciously aligning himself with his father, learning and adapting Dad’s views on the world.
Themes
It is New Year’s Eve. Dad explained to the narrator that this new year would be unlike any other, and that it was important for the family to stay up until midnight. Though Dad is sweating, packing batteries and extra tanks of gas to haul in the trunk, Cate is not working at all. The narrator wants to turn the car key in the ignition, but he resists the urge to break the rules.
Cate’s unwillingness to help Dad pack the car hints at the divide between them; clearly, she does not share Dad’s panic. It is important to note that at this point in the story, the narrator does not want to break the rules, even for a second.
Themes
Milo, the 12-year-old neighbor boy, runs up and peppers the narrator with questions. Milo always stresses the narrator out, and tonight is no exception, as he boasts about the New Year’s Eve party he is going to and the amount of money his grandfather makes. Tonight, his grandfather stands to make “125 grand,” because he works in computers and is going to help stop a lot of blackouts.
Milo’s references to potential blackouts, combined with Dad’s anxiety about this particular New Year’s Eve, suggest that it is December 31, 1999—the date associated with the Y2K Scare, when many worried that a computer programming error would lead to widespread collapse. The story then uses this real-life incident to draw a link between disaster (the blackouts) and profit (Milo’s grandfather’s “125 grand”).
Themes
Dad reappears from the house, carrying vegetables; the narrator is confused about why they’re bringing vegetables to a farm. When the narrator explains about Milo’s grandfather, Dad snickers that “he’s a dead man.” Cate adds her overnight bag to the pile. She worries the neighbors are judging them, and teases Dad about his anxiety, joking that he should “knock over a bank.” The narrator does not understand this joke.
Bringing vegetables to a farm is illogical, but to the narrator’s still-developing mind, Dad’s actions are a major way to make sense of the world—Dad is a role model, so the narrator will learn to mimic his way of approaching things. Cate’s tiny overnight bag again emphasizes her refusal to share in Dad’s worry, as she does not feel the need to bring any disaster-proof items with her.
Themes
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The family sets out on the road, listening as a radio announcer describes New Year’s parties happening all over the world. Cate snarks that the roads seem pretty empty for doomsday, a comment that upsets Dad. Ignoring Cate, Dad starts talking to the narrator “like he's writing one of his letters to the editor.” Dad explains that the world has become too interconnected, and that this degree of “interdependence” is “foolish.”
Dad is beginning to emerge as a particularly paranoid character, his unwillingness to engage with the facts around him bordering on conspiratorial. Dad’s reference to “interdependence” reflects a common Y2K fear: that because so much of water transport and food shipping depends on computer systems, a programming error could mean deadly shortages.
Themes
The narrator wishes he was on a plane, flying over the world as the clock strikes midnight in time zone after time zone. The narrator decides to save this thought for Grandma, since he knows Dad also thinks planes are unsafe. Cate tries to reassure Dad that they are prepared even if the worst does happen, but the narrator does not know if he trusts Cate’s view. Dad makes eye contact with the narrator in the rearview mirror, and the narrator reflects on their identical green eyes.
For the first time, the narrator articulates (to himself) his allegiance to his father. The novel then makes this bond manifest in the two men’s shared green eyes, an important symbol throughout the novel. The narrator inherits his green eyes from his father, just as he will (later) inherit his father’s paranoia and ability to “think defensively.”
Themes
Suddenly, Dad rear ends the car in front of them. The narrator realizes that he had seen the car in front of them slowing down but had been too distracted by staring at Dad’s green eyes to say anything. Cate and Dad begin to squabble, and Cate wants Dad to promise that he'll “be better” after tonight.
It is telling that this moment of eye contact, representative of Dad’s closeness to the narrator, proves dangerous for the people around them. Cate’s insistence that Dad needs to get “better” suggests that Dad’s anxiety around Y2K is, in Cate’s mind, a mental illness.
Themes
The woman in the other car gets out; she is bundled in such a way that makes it clear her car does not have heat, unlike the narrator’s car. Cate urges Dad to get out of the car, vowing that things will be okay once they reach Grandma’s house. The narrator loves Grandma, who wakes everybody up making pancakes, though he notices that Dad is always quieter there (“because they’re not his parents”).
The narrator’s focus on Grandma’s house is the first of many times he will dissociate during a tough time, distracting himself from this car accident by imagining a cozy house and delicious meals.
Themes
Instead of getting out to talk to the woman he hit, Dad keeps driving. The woman, stunned, tries to memorize the family’s license plate. Cate is horrified at her husband’s behavior, telling the narrator “I don’t want you to learn one thing from tonight.” Dad holds himself back from saying anything, and they drive in silence.
Dad’s refusal to stop is clearly driven by his anxiety about the potential dangers of Y2K—but even so, his selfishness is horrifying to both Cate and the woman in the other car. Cate’s instruction that the narrator should not “learn one thing” is ironic, as the narrator will model himself after his father, both this evening and for the rest of the story.
Themes
When they arrive, Grandma is brushing her hair and wearing her favorite green dress. She gives Cate and the narrator big hugs, and she presses Dad to explain why he packed so many supplies. Dad says he wants to be prepared for “when everything falls apart from interdependence,” and Grandma jokes that “that sounds unpleasant.” The narrator is hungry, but Dad feels he cannot eat. Grandma wonders if Dad is “well,” and tries to lighten the mood by basking in the starry night sky.
Grandma’s warmth and commitment to her routines—making pancakes, wearing a beloved old dress, brushing her hair over and over again—immediately sets her apart from paranoid, future-oriented Dad. Like Cate, Grandma worries that Dad’s obsession with this New Year’s Eve might mark him as “[un]well.”
Themes
A few hours later, Grandpa is telling everyone stories about past New Year’s Eves. As he stares at the fire and eats popcorn, the narrator relaxes; he also admires his grandfather’s beloved clock, the only one Grandpa “trusts.” Grandma talks about how New Year’s Eve is always unpredictable, but Grandpa is sure they will all be fine. The narrator is not persuaded by Grandpa’s calm, announcing that he doesn’t think Grandpa understands computers.
This passage highlights two crucial contradictions. First, fire is here depicted as cozy and relaxing, despite its destructive potential (which will frequently come into play throughout the novel). Second, Grandpa holds no stock in Dad’s Y2K anxiety—but Grandpa’s attachment to his one specific clock suggests that he might share some of Dad’s anxieties about technology, more than he cares to admit.
Themes
Grandpa pushes back against this comment, and Grandma tells the narrator to bring Dad into the room. But when the narrator checks Dad’s bed (which Grandma has made up like a hotel), there is no one there. The narrator goes outside, and he notices that the car has been partially unpacked. From here, he looks in on Cate and her parents sitting in silence. The narrator wonders if they are bored or just “quietly content.”
In noting the similarities between boredom and “quiet content” (which are almost indistinguishable to the narrator), the young speaker also suggests that happiness is rooted in a lack of motion, a lack of concern for or preoccupation with what’s next.
Themes
The narrator returns and lies to everyone that Dad would prefer to be left alone. Grandma and Grandpa debate whether solitude will help, and Grandpa complains that “it’s always been the end of the world.” Grandpa cites many of the disasters that have happened in the last century (from two world wars to the influenza pandemic), and he wonders why Dad is scared about “a computer glitch.”
Grandpa’s astute comment reflects one of the central ideas of the novel: rather than being a single, all-encompassing event, apocalypse will hit differently for different people and in different parts of the world. After all, what could be more apocalyptic for the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki than the invention of the atomic bomb?
Themes
Grandpa suggests coffee with Bailey’s, and the narrator is excited—last year, he slept through this part. At the same time, the narrator wants to keep the promise he made Dad that they would be together at midnight. They play Scrabble, and the narrator wonders if the family’s reluctance to turn on the TV is because they don’t want to see it cut out at midnight.
The narrator’s interest in the pleasures of coffee with Bailey’s and Scrabble contradicts the doomsday mentality—and the distrust—that he has already internalized from his father (as can be seen in his suspicion about his family’s TV use).
Themes
The narrator feigns sleepiness. Before Cate tucks him in, the narrator puts on a pair of heavy socks and slides a flashlight into his pocket. Cate worries that her son has absorbed Dad’s anxieties, but the narrator assures her he is fine. After they both promise to “see you next year,” the narrator sneaks out of bed and puts on all his warmest clothes. Absentmindedly, he wonders if Cate prefers being alone with her parents; maybe it makes her feel like a little kid again.
Earlier today, the narrator was hesitant to turn the key in his car’s ignition because that would break a rule; now, torn between his parents’ dueling perspectives, he flat-out lies to Cate. The narrator’s sense of newfound, adult responsibility is made starker by the almost childish ease Cate slips into around her parents.
Themes
The narrator sets off on Grandpa’s old hiking trail, leaving the flashlight and following the moon. Last summer, when the narrator and Dad were hiking together, Dad had found a natural fort, which the narrator felt was “the safest place in the world.” The two had agreed to meet at that spot if anything were ever to go wrong, and now, the narrator knows that Dad is waiting there.
As in their moment of eye contact, Dad and the narrator are able to communicate a great deal without the use of language. Dad’s association of the countryside with “safe[ty]” will remain a constant, even as the world undergoes drastic changes in the years to come.
Themes
The far-off fireworks pick up as the narrator walks, which means midnight is quickly approaching. While he climbs higher, the narrator reflects on the fact that Dad kept driving after he hit that woman. Though Dad has never broken the law before, the narrator thinks that Dad’s decision to keep driving is the thing that has allowed all three of them to be “safe” tonight. The narrator, starting to get spooked, picks up his pace.
The fireworks once again establish that fire can be both dangerous and entertaining—a symbol that mirrors the narrator’s conflicted feelings, as he juggles a sense of adventure with real fear about his Dad and what’s to come at midnight.
Themes
As Dad sees it, once the “fragile system” collapses, everyone will rush to the countryside, trying to get the food and water that can no longer be delivered to urban areas. Cate thinks this is all nonsense, but Dad prides himself on “thinking defensively.” The narrator wonders what the woman they hit is doing, until he spots Dad’s flashlight through the trees. However, when the narrator reaches the clearing, Dad is nowhere to be found—even after the narrator shouts for him. Before he panics, the narrator vows that he has to “start thinking defensively, too.”
Dad’s rhetoric about “thinking defensively” shapes the narrator’s logic in this moment, but it will also determine how he moves through the world for the rest of the story. Crucially, “thinking defensively” seems to mean putting oneself (or one’s loved ones) above all others—as Dad does when he keeps driving despite hitting that woman’s car.
Themes
Finally, Dad runs down the hill, shirt open and sweaty. It’s midnight, and Dad holds the narrator up so he can see all the fireworks. The narrator wonders if the crisis has already happened, and Dad explains that the chaos will take a few hours to set in. As Dad puts him down, the narrator asks why they could not have brought the woman in the car with them. Dad wonders if the lights have gone out on Cate and her parents, which he thinks would be “funny.” The narrator doesn’t get the joke.
Though the narrator is perhaps too young to fully process it, readers can perceive that Dad is not a good role model: his open shirt and sweaty chest suggest disarray, while his cruel joke about Cate and her parents further demonstrates his selfishness and his lack of empathy.
Themes
Dad launches into a monologue: “we are arrogant,” he says of the human race, “a whole species that didn’t think to set its clocks right.” The narrator tries to calm his father down, but Dad just gets more and more upset, arguing that “the future is a hospital” where no amount of tenderness can make things okay. The narrator, freaked out, asks how he can prepare for such a future.
Dad claims to want to protect his son, but his inflammatory speech here mostly just unnerves the narrator. Though the Y2K scare (predicated on an error in “clocks” computer programmers used) would turn out to be a false alarm, Dad’s anxieties about humanity’s “arrogance” will be borne out in the subsequent chapters.
Themes
Seeing the narrator’s anxiety stops Dad in his tracks. Dad wraps his son in a bear hug and starts apologizing over and over again. The narrator realizes that the lights probably aren’t going to fail, and he quotes one of Grandpa’s favorite sayings: “everything will be fine until it’s not. Then we can worry.” Instead of responding, Dad just keeps apologizing.
Dad’s apology, and his warm hug, mark one of the rare times that familial love and care supersede an individual’s drive to survive in this novel. Interestingly, even as the narrator learns paranoia and prediction of future catastrophe from Dad, he also strives to balance Dad’s view with Grandpa's calm, everyday approach.
Themes
