Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Behold the Dreamers, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Sustainability of the American Dream
The Modern Immigrant Experience
Class and Interdependency
Parental Expectations vs. Personal Ambitions
Family and Belonging
Summary
Analysis
At Cindy’s funeral, Mighty wears a gray suit and plays “a beautifully imperfect” version of Claude Debussy’s “Clair de Lune.” Vince delivers the eulogy, for which he speaks in anecdotes, talking about hiking with his mother in the Adirondacks, her love of her friends and for those who needed her, her love of the arts, her failed attempt to get him to learn the violin, and her successful attempt to get Mighty to learn the piano. He describes his mother as “imperfect” but “beautiful,” like everyone. Jende sits in the last pew and closes his eyes to pray for Cindy’s soul.
In the aftermath of her death, Vince is more capable of sympathizing with his mother and remembering her as more than the overbearing, status-oriented person that he described her as when she was living. Furthermore, it is Cindy’s death that will draw Vince back home, though not permanently, when he had been trying to distance himself from his family.
Themes
Jende tells Neni later about the funeral and talks about feeling sorry for Mighty. Neni suggests that they donate the ten thousand dollars that Cindy gave her as hush money to Judson Memorial Church. Jende tells her that she needn’t feel guilty; Cindy would’ve died whether or not she gave Neni the money.
Neni feels sorry for Mighty because he no longer as a mother. Due to her traditional mindset and her observation of Clark’s interactions with his family, she doesn’t think he’s equipped to care for the boy.
Themes
