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6. Us Proper
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
For a stretch of days, Paps disappears and Ma stops going to work. She also stops eating and cooking, leaving the boys to fend for themselves. As she sleeps on the couch, the narrator and his brothers move quietly around her, preparing meager meals of saltines, peanut butter, and other random provisions they find in the cupboards. Meanwhile, Lina—Ma’s supervisor—calls multiple times, wanting to know where she is. Finally, she decides to come over, arriving with a bag of groceries. As the boys tear into the bag, Manny tells Lina that their mother is sleeping, but she ignores him and calls out for Ma, who comes running toward her and starts weeping in her arms. Comforting her, Lina kisses Ma all over her face, finally giving her a soft, slow kiss on the lips. As the boys watch, nobody knows what to say.
Once again, the narrator and his brothers cannot depend on their parents to support or care for them. This is largely due to the tumultuous nature of Ma and Paps’s relationship, which destabilizes the entire household. It also the result of Paps’s unpredictable ways, which render him utterly undependable. The boys, however, are used to caring for themselves by this point, though it’s difficult to know what they would do if they ran out of food. Thankfully, this doesn’t happen because of Lina, who apparently cares about Ma enough to lend her support. In fact, the context of Lina and Ma’s relationship is rather inscrutable, since Lina is her boss but seems to feel strongly for her on an emotional level—so strongly that she kisses her on the lips. And though this kiss is most likely not sexually charged, it’s important because it is the first same-sex affection the narrator witnesses, though he doesn’t know what to make of it.
Themes
