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The large truck that Paps buys to replace the family’s car after it breaks down is an embodiment of his failure to prioritize his loved ones over his own desires. Although he thrills his sons with the large vehicle, his decision to buy it enrages Ma, who quickly points out that it’s an impractical vehicle for their family to own, since it doesn’t even have enough seats to fit all of them. The only way it can transport the entire family is if the boys sit in the bed, which is unsafe. This is a perfect representation of Paps’s lack of concern for his sons’ overall wellbeing. Instead of focusing on what would be best for them, he allows himself to get carried away with the idea of owning what Ma refers to as a “big-dick truck,” which makes him feel tough and masculine. This, it seems, is all he cares about, though he agrees to return the truck the following day after Ma screams at him for being selfish. And yet, he never actually returns it, a fact that symbolizes not only his unreliability as a husband and father, but his manipulative tendencies. Accordingly, the truck itself comes to stand for his unwillingness to think about other people, along with his controlling and deceptive ways of getting what he wants.
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Paps’s Truck Symbol Timeline in We the Animals
The timeline below shows where the symbol Paps’s Truck appears in We the Animals. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
12. Big-Dick Truck
...family’s car dies, Paps goes to the dealership and comes home with a large pickup truck. The boys spot him from afar as he wheels into the neighborhood, and it isn’t...
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...Ma on the side of the head, but she doesn’t stop berating him, yelling, “Big-dick Truck! Big-dick truck!” Seeing how upset she is, he steps toward her and tries to take...
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13. Ducks
...When she comes home, she wakes them up and tells them to get into the truck, which Paps never returned. She then drives to a park, where she tells them to...
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...them, yelling that she thought they’d been kidnapped. When she gathers them back into the truck, she talks about the possibility of moving to Spain. The narrator is skeptical of this...
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15. Trash Kites
...remaining daylight hours flying them in the wind. When it’s dark, the lights of Paps’s truck suddenly appear, and Manny curses, wishing aloud that they’d chosen to set up camp in...
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18. The Night I Am Made
...son’s body, Ma collects the narrator’s belongings, packing them up and bringing them to the truck, where Manny and Joel sit warming up the cabin and testing the windshield wipers. Returning,...
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