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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in When Will There Be Good News?, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Trauma, Survival, and Reckoning with the Past
Appearances vs. Reality
Lies and Deceptions
Family
Summary
Analysis
Dr. Hunter gets home that evening and warmly cuddles the baby. Reggie feels a “convulsion” of sadness and isn’t sure why. She wishes she could be a baby again and be wrapped in someone’s arms—her mother’s, or even Dr. Hunter’s. She remembers cuddling with her mother in front of the TV before her mother died. “You would hope two lives entwined would add up to more,” she thinks, imagining that Dr. Hunter and the baby will have a lifetime of exciting memories together.
Reggie isn’t much more than a child herself, and despite the relatively adult role she occupies in fending for herself, she longs to be cared for like a child. Dr. Hunter’s warmth toward the baby reminds her of her own bond with her mother and how abruptly it was cut off.
Themes
Dr. Hunter has plans to go to a Christmas shopping night. She invites Reggie, but Reggie is due at Ms. MacDonald’s that evening. As Dr. Hunter and the baby wave goodbye from the porch, Reggie recalls her last goodbye to her mother. It had involved heaving her mother’s suitcase into a taxicab. It’s a murky memory, one that felt like “the first half of something that had never been completed.” Reggie thinks that people should always pay attention during goodbyes, just in case they turn out to be the last one. She takes a good look at Dr. Hunter and the baby.
The story of Reggie’s mother’s death is revealed in bits and pieces. Here it’s revealed that her mother’s death happened while she was away, contributing to a sense of unreality and lack of closure for Reggie. She doesn’t want the same thing to happen again with her new “family” and is therefore painfully conscious of goodbyes. This scene also has a sense of foreboding, as if something bad is going to happen to the Hunters, too.
Themes
As Reggie is standing at the bus stop, reading Great Expectations, her brother Billy appears. Reggie still remembers when Billy was her “hero and defender.” Reggie doesn’t really know what Billy’s into these days, but she remembers his childhood love of weapons—he’d stolen a “souvenir” Russian handgun, a Makarov, that their father had smuggled home from the Gulf War.
Billy only pops up in Reggie’s life unexpectedly and inconsistently; he isn’t a stable presence there, or a particularly welcome one. His link with the Russian handgun will prove to be significant later on in the story.
Themes
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Reggie feels uncomfortable with Billy being in close proximity to the Hunters. He occasionally turns up at Ms. MacDonald’s, where he’s asked to do odd jobs. Billy is actually good with his hands, but instead of pursuing a career as a joiner, he’s gone “all wrong.” Reggie was embarrassed by the way Billy fingered the dusty books at Ms. MacDonald’s house and dreads the thought of how he’d react to the Hunters. Billy sees Reggie onto the bus and leaves.
Reggie doesn’t want her cozy, familial life with the Hunters to overlap with Billy’s unsavory connections; she doesn’t even want the Hunters to know he exists. Billy does have valuable skills, but he hasn’t cultivated them toward useful ends. Billy also has a tie to Ms. MacDonald.
Themes
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