The island of Alcatraz, and the prison built on it, symbolize Natalie’s disability (which author Gennifer Choldenko has said would be diagnosed as severe autism today). Moose begins the novel seeing both Alcatraz and his sister as unknowable and dangerous; he doesn’t want to go outside, especially with Natalie, for fear of the creepy prison and because he finds Natalie unpredictable. Additionally, Natalie sometimes has tantrums that Moose realizes trap her—he can see in her eyes, at one point, that she’s fighting the tantrum threatening to overwhelm her. This likens Natalie’s difficulties with processing and regulating her emotions to a prison, much like Alcatraz.
However, over the course of the novel, Moose becomes more comfortable on Alcatraz, a process that mirrors Natalie developing more emotional regulation and the ability to fight her tantrums to some degree. Essentially, while the novel acknowledges that Natalie is in no way “cured” (and it should be noted that there is no “cure” for autism), both Natalie and Moose learn to accept and live within their restrictions, giving them more freedom and autonomy than they’ve ever enjoyed before.
Alcatraz Quotes in Al Capone Does My Shirts
Favorite crime: Dinner party of death! Invites lieutenants in his organization known to have double-crossed him to a party. After dessert, Al’s men lock the doors and Capone beats the traitors to death with a baseball bat.
A baseball bat?
Favorite word for murder: “Rub-out”—often in front of many witnesses who then develop “gangster amnesia.”
Sent to jail for: Tax evasion.
Other stuff: Rigged elections. Opened first soup kitchen in Chicago. Likes silk underwear.
We sit with her. Annie and Theresa, Jimmy and me. Keep her company wherever she’s gone.
That is the way my mom finds us when she gets off the boat, her music bag over her shoulder.
[...]
“Get them out of here.” My mom spits the words out.
“Mom, it’s—”
“I won’t have her made a spectacle.”
“It’s really not like that. They like her,” I say.
“NOW, Moose.”
“Stop it! Stop it!” I have my hands on Nat’s arms. I want to shake her, shake her hard. My arms tremble with the effort not to.
Natalie screams louder. I look into those trapped eyes. Wherever she is, she can’t get out, which only makes her scream louder. And suddenly I’m not angry anymore.
I try to go to sleep. But I keep thinking about Natalie at home in Santa Monica—living her life in the back room of our house and on the steps of Gram’s. I rode bikes with Pete, played ball, did my homework. She did not. I will graduate from high school, go to college, get married, have kids. She will not.
[...]
Nothing has helped. But suddenly I see this isn’t true. One thing has helped. Carrie Kelly. Natalie has been more a part of things here on this island than she ever has before. She’s had a life here, for the first time. Maybe just a little bit of a life. But a life just the same.
I look directly into his blue eyes. “Remember you said we should think hard about going against the rules? Remember you said that. Well, I have thought hard.”
The warden meets my gaze. “I see that,” he says. “But in this case you’re asking me to bend the rules. And I’m not about to. You may think it’s the right thing to do, but I do not.”
And every day I wonder if we’ll be going back to Santa Monica. It seems so long ago that we lived there now, I’m not even sure I want to anymore. And I know moving back will be bad for Natalie.
Alcatraz Symbol Timeline in Al Capone Does My Shirts
