Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Medicine Walk, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Fathers and Sons
Nature and the Land
Identity and Heritage
Memory and Story
Love, Loss, and Grief
Summary
Analysis
The kid arrives at a three-story house with broken windows and assorted trash blown about the yard. The door is locked. Three men are sitting on the porch. The kid introduces himself as Franklin Starlight and asks for Eldon. The men laugh when he declines a drink—a polite non-drinker can’t be Eldon’s son. One of them warns the kid that Eldon “ain’t right.”
Eldon obviously can’t afford to live somewhere decent. The condition of the rooming house suggests that his life is broken down, too. The men’s teasing shows that Eldon has a reputation for drinking and rudeness. Their joke reveals a truth: that the kid has been raised to be different from his father.
Themes
After the kid is let inside, he takes in the drab, faded exterior, the cooking smells, and the hissing cat. He climbs the stairs past apartments; a toothless man yells something garbled and shakes his fist at the kid. When he reaches his father’s room, he listens at the door, hearing voices and the sound of bedsprings. He knocks, and after a moment of silence, he hears, “Well, come in, dammit.”
The rooming house is a last resort for people who don’t have anywhere else to go. When the kid reaches his father’s room, he receives a dubious welcome, if it can even be called that.
Themes
When the kid comes in, he finds a room containing only a dresser, chair, and bed. His father lies in the bed with a women pressed against him. Empty bottles, clothes, and fast-food containers are everywhere. Tools are hung and piled everywhere, too, as well as bicycle parts and jars filled with cigarette butts. The kid says, “I’m Franklin,” and the man’s only response is, “Got big, didn’t ya?” Loose skin hangs off his father’s lined face, his hair is grayed, and his teeth are stained. His bones stick out. But his eyes are bright and intent.
Eldon’s existence is in disarray. He doesn’t have much to his name, he’s sick, and he doesn’t recognize the kid immediately. Even without knowing Eldon’s background, it’s clear from his circumstances that he’s failed as a father.
Themes
The kid explains that the old man told him to come. He sits on a chair and declines both a drink and a smoke. Coughing, his father sits up and introduces Deirdre as “a whore.” She slaps him playfully in response, and when she takes a drink from a bottle, the kid blushes to see her breasts. Finally the kid asks what his father has to say, and his father says he doesn’t have an agenda. When his father observes that the kid doesn’t like him much, the kid says he doesn’t know him well; “dad” is just a word to him.
The kid’s reunion with his father is extremely awkward and embarrassing. Everything—Deirdre’s presence, the struggle to make conversation—suggests that this isn’t a normal father-son relationship. Indeed, the kid doesn’t feel he really knows his father.
Themes
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The kid’s father says he needs to talk to him. The woman gets dressed and leaves, briefly looking as if she intends to say something. His father puts on tattered work boots and a denim jacket. The kid shakes his head sadly at the sight of the room, then follows him out to the street.
Despite his initial denial, the kid’s father does have an agenda of some kind. So far, the kid appears to be the bigger adult in the situation. He recognizes that his father’s situation is pitiful.
Themes
