Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in America Is in the Heart, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Beauty in Despair
Race and American Identity
Education vs. Ignorance
Poverty
Summary
Analysis
Afraid that the violence of Temple Street will consume him, Carlos again retreats into books, this time by writers of historical American fiction. The books stimulate his mind, but he feels he has no outlet for his intellectual passion. He begins writing drafts of his life story in America, which some Manila-based magazines publish. When a new landlord buys the apartment, Carlos and his friends move into a hotel. Carlos attends a party for a prominent Filipino educator studying the American educational system. Two police detectives arrive to harass the Filipinos, much to the educator’s shock. Carlos goes back to the hotel to get a gun, but Macario stops him from going back to the party.
In one of the novel’s most powerful sequences, Carlos feels triumphant after getting some of his writing published. Yet this triumph is tempered by an instance of racist violence that awakens his long-controlled rage towards white America. After Carlos cares for Macario through a long illness, Macario returns the favor by saving Carlos from making the horrible mistake of murder. If Carlos had returned to the party with a gun, he might have endangered all that he has worked so hard to achieve.
Themes
The incident at the party causes Carlos to demand violent action, so he contacts Julio in the Filipino underworld. Along with his partner Rommy, Julio has been stealing Social Security checks, then cashing them at racetracks and gambling houses. Unwilling to fully enter a life of crime, Carlos gets drunk, and Ganzo later finds him wandering in San Francisco. Ganzo encourages Carlos to give up drinking and start writing again.
Although Macario prevents Carlos from committing murder, Carlos nonetheless tries to channel his rage into crimes and drunkenness. For a moment, it appears Carlos may finally succumb to the despair brought on by the racism of American society, but again, it’s the idea of writing and using his education well that pulls him back from the brink.
Themes
