Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Al Capone Does My Shirts, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Disability, Dignity, and Shared Humanity
Friendship and Community
Family
Growing Up and Doing the Right Thing
Summary
Analysis
Scout ignores Moose the next day at school. Moose is writing a letter to Pete after he gets home when Theresa knocks on the door. She tells Moose and Natalie to come: Moose isn’t getting money from Piper, but Annie always buys candy and she’ll share. This piques Natalie’s interest, so she and Moose follow Theresa. Natalie sits down and begins matching buttons with stones and feathers, but Piper calls to Natalie: she needs Natalie to divide the earnings three ways and count out the shares. Natalie happily does so as Annie and Jimmy discuss what they’ll buy.
The kids are beginning to form a close-knit community—one that, notably, includes Natalie. Piper realizes that Natalie has something to offer, and so she gives Natalie a chance to help out and feel like part of the group. Theresa’s insistence that Annie will share candy with those who didn’t earn money also speaks to the group’s generosity and kindness.
Themes
Mr. Trixle suddenly appears and says that the warden wants to see Piper, Moose, Jimmy, and Annie. Piper’s money is hidden already, but Jimmy and Annie’s piles are still on the dock. Theresa takes off her skates and cries since she can’t find her shoes, while Annie looks pale. Theresa insists she has to come, even if the warden didn’t ask for her, because she’ll be able to get the others out of trouble. Moose insists he’s not in trouble, but Theresa just tells Natalie to come with them. To Moose’s amazement, Natalie leaves her buttons and follows the group up the hill to Piper’s house.
It seems very likely that Moose was right, and that Piper’s scheme is going to land the kids in trouble with the warden. Still, the kids stick together and show one another loyalty: it’s unclear what Theresa can do to sway the warden, for instance, but she isn’t about to abandon her friends. And Natalie also seems invested in at least staying with the group.
Themes
In his library, the warden stares at the children for a moment before saying he’s very disappointed and then pulling out a letter. He reads it aloud. It’s from Del’s father, informing the warden of the laundry scheme and threatening to alert the mayor and the San Francisco Chronicle if something like this happens again. The warden then asks Annie to explain, and Annie says that it was Piper’s idea; she just put the clothes through with her laundry. The warden says he hates when people blame others, but Moose and Jimmy insist Annie is telling the truth. Piper just says that Annie is “not usually like this.” Shaking, the warden says everyone will be punished as Natalie repeats “one dollar and six cents”—and Theresa explains that’s what they each earned.
Readers know that Annie, Moose, and Jimmy aren’t lying—but the warden seems very interested in not hearing that his own daughter might be the group’s ringleader. Piper, for her part, throws Annie under the bus, threatening the group’s cohesion, while Natalie and Theresa, perhaps unintentionally, get the kids in even bigger trouble. That the warden is so angry at all the kids but seemingly not at Piper introduces more clearly the idea that justice isn’t always just.
Themes
At this, the warden demands everyone’s money. Jimmy and Annie hand over theirs, but Piper doesn’t move. He then notes that money motivated almost all the criminals in Alcatraz, and he insists this will not happen again. If it does, he threatens to fire their fathers without severance, saying specifically that he expected more from Moose. With this, he dismisses everyone but Piper. Moose looks back and sees Piper whispering to her father. Clearly, she’s going to get out of this.
By threatening the kids’ dads, the warden plays into the kids’ familial loyalty. None of them want to hurt their families, and the warden makes it clear that this behavior will hurt them if it continues. Piper, then, begins to read as extremely ruthless and callous—her own dad probably won’t get fired for her behavior, but she shows little regard for her friends’ families’ stability.
Themes
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