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Part 4: Chapter 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Trash, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Childhood, Poverty, and Injustice
Corruption, Power, and Theft
Community, Loyalty, and Solidarity
Intelligence, Education, and Street Smarts
Summary
Analysis
Rat feels awful about stealing the money; the boys agree to return it if they can decode the Bible and find the stolen money. Gardo meets Marco in a tea-house, worrying about the police grabbing him and beating him to death. After the exchange, Gardo takes the Bible and he runs toward the kitchen, but Marco grabs him as police whistles go off. Gardo takes his garbage-fishing hook from his back pocket and slashes wildly at Marco’s face. Marco falls back, and Gardo thinks he got Marco’s eye. Outside, Gardo tosses the Bible to Rat and he bolts through traffic, a fish market, and into the canal as gunshots go off behind him. Downstream, Gardo hacks up his clothes so they looked different and he walks back, praying that Rat and Raphael are safe.
Mulligan emphasizes that the boys are not really thieves at all through their intent to return the stolen money, which contrasts with Zapanta’s morally reprehensible theft. Marco’s intent to rat the boys out after accepting a bribe shows once again how corrupt the authority figures in this society are. Gardo’s quick thinking in tossing the Bible to Rat, running in the opposite direction, and disguising his clothes before reconvening with the boys once again emphasizes his streetwise intelligence.
Themes
