Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Beautiful Boy, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Addiction, Ruin, and Redemption
Responsibility and Blame
Parenthood and Control
Support vs. Enabling
The Disease Model, Stigma, and Treatment
Summary
Analysis
After high school, David attended the University of Arizona in Tucson. His roommate, Charles, was from Manhattan. Charles was wealthy, and both of his parents had died—possibly from drugs and alcohol or from suicide. Charles was impressive in his “worldliness,” telling stories about high school hijinks and sexual exploits. He also drank and used drugs abundantly. David would often join in those escapades, variously consuming mushrooms, psychedelics, marijuana, Quaaludes, whiskey, cocaine, and “random uppers and downers.”
Relaying the full extent of David’s drug use in college adds nuance to David’s response to Nic’s drug use. Through his friendship with Charles, David has seen firsthand the toll that addiction can take on others at an early age. And so in talking to Nic about drugs, David does have a degree of authority, and yet he blames himself for perhaps unintentionally glorifying drug use.
Themes
David recalls several drug-fueled incidents with Charles: tripping in the desert in Tucson; setting out to watch the sunrise over the ocean in San Diego (only to realize, hours after it had risen, that they were facing the wrong way); skydiving while high and narrowly avoiding disaster when David’s parachute didn’t open (though, thankfully, his reserve chute did). David relays that such stories about intoxicated exploits are dangerous, because they highlight adventure and escape while omitting the trauma and casualties.
Here, David illustrates how drugs can be harmful even if a person does not become addicted to them. In this incident, David nearly dies from taking drugs because it leads him to an unsafe skydiving experience. Thankfully, he lives to tell the tale, but he notes that so many people do not. This is why drug stories are often misleading: only those who survive can speak about the “adventures” they had.
Themes
One night, after Charles returned from a two-day high, David became worried after he had been in the bathroom for a long time. David broke into the bathroom to find that Charles had fainted and cracked his skull on the floor. Later in the year, David visited the University of California at Berkeley and decided to transfer. He wanted to focus more on studies, but drugs were “plentiful” there too. He kept in touch with Charles, whose drinking and drug use continued to escalate.
Again, David emphasizes the disastrous consequences that drugs can have, noting that Charles almost died from his drug use. David, on the other hand, recognizes those potentially disastrous consequences and works to remove himself from the situation and get on the right track—providing an early duality between those who choose to give up drugs and those who do not.
Themes
After Nic’s summer in France, he begins his senior year in high school. Don has accepted a position at a different school, and so Nic quits the swimming and water polo teams, as well as the newspaper. He maintains good grades, but he cuts classes and comes home late. David and Karen grow more concerned, and the school counselor suggests they keep talking it out with him. Nic continues to hang out with boys who are stoners, but he maintains that he’s only using marijuana, an only occasionally. David’s advice and frustration go unheeded. Nic accuses David of being hypocritical, pointing out that David smoked a lot of pot. David tells Nic that he wishes he hadn’t.
Nic’s downward trajectory after Don leaves the school illustrates just how important his support was to keeping Nic afloat. Now, Nic is once again on a path to self-ruin by cutting classes, quitting activities that had been important to him, and hanging out with kids who are a bad influence. These are all choices that Nic himself makes, yet David highlights his own responsibility in Nic’s life and frets over losing control of Nic’s behavior.
Themes
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In the late spring, Nic graduates from high school. During the summer, his behavior grows more erratic and moodier. David doesn’t know what else to do other than warn Nic, enforce curfews, deny him the car, and take him to a therapist. At one Wednesday night dinner with Nancy and Don, Nic rants incoherently at Nancy about the archaic nature of monogamy and how Dr. Seuss is a “genius.” The next morning, David realizes that Nic must have been high, though Nic denies it.
David recounts how Nic is more and more pushing the boundaries with his drug use—even getting high before a dinner with Karen’s parents. Nic’s decline, and his evaporating sense of what is acceptable, mirror David’s escalating sense that he does not have any control over his son.
Themes
David doesn’t know what to do: Nic’s therapist advises that forbidding drugs will simply force Nic to hide his drug use further. Some friends say to kick Nic out, and others tell David to never let Nic out of his sight. David can’t fathom how he could do either one.
This passage encapsulates one of the ideas that makes David’s decision so difficult: the most he can do is give Nic ultimatums that he can no longer stay in his home. Yet David is still struggling to find the balance between leniency and harshness that will set Nic on the right path.
Themes
One weekend, just before Nic’s eighteenth birthday in July, Nic steals the car, cash, food, and a case of wine. He doesn’t call for two days, and David is panicked. Nic’s therapist says that he is simply “exercising his independence” and is trying to rebel; his rebellion is extreme because David gave him little to rebel against. David thinks that he has been too lenient with Nic, but he also wonders about other kids who had stricter or more lenient parents.
This incident illustrates how Nic’s need to “exercise independence,” and his use of that independence to satisfy his drug addiction, still have profound effects on the rest of his family. Not only is he stealing from them, but he is also causing deep emotional pain in his father. This proves how even though Nic’s addiction primarily harms himself, it also affects the rest of his family
Themes
When Nic finally calls from Death Valley, David demands that he return home. He does so, and David grounds him. Nic shouts that David is always trying to control him, and repeating “fuck you” before storming off to his bedroom. David takes Nic to therapy, but Nic simply lashes out. David realizes, again, that Nic must have been high during the appointment. At a follow-up session, Nic is more civil and apologizes, promising that he will work hard in school and that he won’t blow the opportunity.
Here, Nic acknowledges that David always seems to be trying to control him. This desire for control is natural for a parent who feels their child slipping away, but it becomes worse just as Nic is trying to gain more independence as an adult.
Themes
David doesn’t know how to make sense of Nic’s behavior, saying that it’s difficult to figure out what is happening when changes take place gradually. Two weeks later, Karen and the kids are planning to go to the beach. As they pack the car, two police officers pull up and get out of their cars. They head for Nic, handcuffing his wrists and putting him into a squad car before driving away. Jasper starts to wail inconsolably.
This is a turning point for David’s understanding of the harm that Nic can do in his life, as his foray into drugs has seemingly escalated beyond the point of simply missing classes in school—presumably, it’s what leads to his arrest here. David is once again flabbergasted by Nic’s actions, and he also observes the toll on Jasper.
Themes
