Previous
2. Never-Never Time
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in We the Animals, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity and Belonging
Violence, Aggression, and Love
Support and Caretaking
Masculinity and Coming of Age
Summary
Analysis
One day, the narrator and his brothers come home from school to find Paps in the kitchen. He’s listening to music as he cooks, and his eyes are shining excitedly. The boys watch him dance, and then he draws them into the room to join him. Following his lead, they prance around the kitchen. Turning up the music, Paps takes a beer from the refrigerator. The narrator and his brothers watch him do this and then notice the many empty cans on the counter. Manny rolls his eyes, but none of them stop dancing, though now the narrator and Joel are following Manny, not their father.
This is the first scene in which Paps actually appears. At this point, the only thing readers know about him is that he often spanks the boys when he comes home. Now, though, Torres presents a somewhat sympathetic portrait of the narrator’s father, who—like Ma—is apparently capable of being playful with his children. At the same time, though, it’s obvious that he’s a heavy drinker, and the fact that he stops dancing to drink beer indicates that he prioritizes drinking (and generally whatever he wants) over spending time with his children. With this dynamic at play, Manny steps in as the leader of the dance, symbolizing that the brothers support one another in the absence of uncompromised parental attention.
Themes
Paps tells the boys to dance like they’re rich. Sticking up their noses, they try to follow this directive, but he quickly says they’re clearly not rich. He then instructs them to dance like they’re poor. They try, but he soon declares that they’re not poor, either. Moving on, he tells them to dance like they’re white, and when they fail to do this, he tells them they’re not white. Continuing, he tells them to dance like Puerto Ricans, and they try to imitate the way he himself dances, but he stops them, taking a sip of his beer and calling them “mutts.” He then adds that they’re neither white nor Puerto Rican, ordering them to watch how he—a “purebred”—dances. Taking the floor, he demonstrates the way he learned to move in Spanish Harlem and Brooklyn, where he grew up. This, he says, is the boys’ heritage.
When Paps calls his sons “mutts,” he calls attention to their lack of connection to Puerto Rican culture—something they’re connected to only through Paps himself. However, he also points out that they’re not fully white, nor are they rich, nor poor. According to this viewpoint, then, their racial and socioeconomic identities exist beyond singular, clear-cut designations. This is an important notion to keep in mind as the novella progresses, since the narrator becomes increasingly concerned about who he is and how he fits in with the people in his life.
Themes
