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
When Moose gets up the next morning, Dad is at the kitchen table, reading the paper while Mom packs Natalie’s suitcase. Moose asks Natalie if the sun got up today, which he does every morning. It used to bug him that she never answers, but after hearing that she spent the day sobbing the one day he didn’t ask her, he continues to ask. Also as usual, Mom asks Natalie what she wants for breakfast, and Natalie says she wants lemon cake. Mom agrees, since today is a “special day.” Natalie holds her face inches from her plate and shovels cake into her mouth, which makes Moose feel ill—he doesn’t eat with Natalie if Dad isn’t around.
By offering this anecdote about the day Moose didn’t ask Natalie about the sunrise, he shows how he learned how much of an impact he has on Natalie and her emotional wellbeing. Asking without expecting an answer shows that Moose respects Natalie’s particular behavior patterns, even as he finds others (like her eating habits) difficult to be around.
Themes
Natalie says, “Natalie Flanagan’s whole family,” and Moose wonders if she knows what’s coming: nobody in the family has told her that students don’t come home from the Esther P. Marinoff school. Dad says that Natalie will have fun with kids her age, and Moose wonders what age that is—though even if the other kids are much younger, Natalie still might be able to communicate with them better.
Natalie, Moose seems to realize, enjoys being at the breakfast table with her whole family—her family is important to her. Still, Moose wonders if Natalie might be able to have more fulfilling relationships with kids who are similarly disabled.
Themes
Soon after, Dad hands Natalie her button box and picks up her suitcase. Mom says that Moose doesn’t need to come and Moose says he doesn’t want to, but Dad says Moose has to come. Moose is reminded of when he was six, and Mom sent him to Gram’s. Gram glared horribly at Mom when Mom dropped Moose off. Later, Moose overheard Gram saying how horrible it was that a psychiatrist told Mom that Natalie wasn’t getting enough attention, so Mom “ship[ped] [Moose] off.” She spat that being without Moose would make Natalie sicker, and that Moose didn’t make Natalie “the way she is.” Dad came to get Moose early the next morning with no explanation.
Dad insists that the Flanagans drop Natalie off at school as a family, seemingly understanding how important this is to Natalie. Author Gennifer Choldenko has said that today, Natalie would likely be diagnosed with autism. Today, autism is seen more as a disability and as just part of neurodiversity, but in 1935, it was seen as an illness—and so as something that could, and should, be cured. This is why Gram speaks the way she does, though notably, Gram also suggests that Moose—who isn’t “sick” like Natalie supposedly is—deserves love and care from his parents, too.
Themes
Now, the family is walking down to the dock and the boat, which the boatman has told them doesn’t wait for anyone. Dad runs ahead while Natalie lags behind. Mom tells Natalie this school will be a great opportunity as Dad opens up McGregor’s Illustrated Animal Book, which has a great index (Natalie loves having an index read aloud to her). On the boat, Natalie rocks more than usual, so Moose looks up at the sky and says he sees 229 gulls. Natalie says he’s wrong; there are only nine. She loves to catch his mistakes. Now, the boat is coming into San Francisco. Moose’s family watches another family walk down the gangplank. The toddler with the family goes down backward, carefully, and then grabs his mom’s hand. At the sight, Mom begins to cry.
Both Mom and Dad seem to be trying to energize Natalie, while Moose is more in tune with the fact that Natalie is clearly having a hard time (hence the rocking). It’s also noteworthy that Dad and Moose seem to be trying to comfort Natalie with things she likes—an index and offering mistakes for her to correct—while Mom seems more focused on what the school can do for Natalie.
Themes
Get the entire Al Capone Does My Shirts LitChart as a printable PDF.
Seeing Mom cry, Natalie curls into a ball and refuses to move. Dad talks to Natalie while Mom talks to the boatman, who’s eager to get moving back to Alcatraz. Finally, Moose grabs the book and begins to read the index, but changing the animals’ names and listing incorrect page numbers. Natalie bolts up, corrects him, and follows Moose off the boat. She then grabs Moose’s hand hard. Natalie doesn’t hold hands—why now? Moose tells himself things will be fine, but deep down, he feels sick and knows this is just “another one of [his] mother’s crazy ideas.” But Moose always does what he’s told to do.
Again, Moose develops the idea that he’s responsible and honest to a fault, which is why he goes along with coaxing Natalie off the boat even as he remains unsure that the Esther P. Marinoff School is a good idea for her. Moose doesn’t know what, exactly, Natalie needs, but going away to boarding school and leaving the family is, in his opinion, not it.
Themes
