Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Deadly, Unna?, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Race, Injustice, and Action
Courage and Masculinity
Duty and Sacrifice
Teamwork and Family
Summary
Analysis
Blacky meets his sister, Sharon, outside their house when he arrives at home. She says their father wants to see him. He passes his three youngest siblings, who tell him their father seems mad. Blacky finds his mother in the laundry room, but she doesn’t know what the old man wants to talk to Blacky about. The old man is out in his tool shed, which he always keeps locked and tells the kids to stay out of.
While it previously appeared that Blacky’s decision to attend the funeral was complete, the narrative throws another, more significant obstacle in his way as he tries to make this sacrifice. Now, Blacky must overcome both his fear of his father and his intense desire to please him.
Themes
Blacky steps into the shed, where his father is working with tools and drinking beer. The old man reminds Blacky that he always told him to do a job properly, or else not do it at all. The old man asks him why he hasn’t been mowing the “lawn,” meaning the dry patch of rocky yard outside their home. Blacky says he forgot. The old man lectures him about taking more responsibility around the house.
The old man’s lecture is hypocritical and ironic, as he never takes any responsibility for the family. Later in the novel, Blacky ironically must disobey his father in order to take responsibility for covering up the racist graffiti on the jetty.
Themes
The old man has ended his fishing partnership with Mick and has struggled to catch fish because he doesn’t know enough about the ocean. His new partner is an alcoholic who can’t come fishing the next day, so the old man wants Blacky and Team-man to come fishing with him instead. Blacky says he can’t, but he doesn’t want to tell his father about Dumby’s funeral. Instead, he tells his father about Cathy’s barbeque. The old man tells Blacky they’re going fishing tomorrow and refuses to discuss it any more. Blacky knows if he doesn’t agree to go fishing, his father will pressure him.
The old man criticizing his partner for drinking is, again, hypocritical of him. Blacky’s omission of Dumby’s funeral shows that he is still unwilling to make the most extreme of sacrifices for the sake of his friendship and his opposition to racist divisions. Though he will still go to the funeral, Blacky is not yet brave enough to challenge his father directly, even for the sake of his dead friend.
Themes
Inside the house, Blacky’s siblings are watching The Brady Bunch. On the TV show, one of the Brady children is asking their father for advice. Blacky hates The Brady Bunch because he knows that in real life, adults create more problems than they solve. On the show, the father tells his son to do whatever his heart tells him to do. Blacky storms out and sits on Black Rock until the sun goes down. He tells Sharon that he can’t stop thinking about the advice to listen to his heart.
This passage explicitly connects Blacky’s hatred of The Brady Bunch to its message of family supporting each other, which he doubts is really possible. However, Blacky takes the show’s message to heart here, showing how his relationship to duty and responsibility is beginning to shift due to his decision to go to the funeral.
Themes
Get the entire Deadly, Unna? LitChart as a printable PDF.
Blacky goes to his room and stares up at the scar in the ceiling, thinking. Then he gets up and packs his football bag with his pants, white school shirt, and dress shoes. He can’t find his school tie, so he goes to find his father’s tie. He passes his mother, who is asleep at the kitchen table, on his way to steal the tie from his father’s closet.
Blacky’s shows a newfound courage by stealing his dad’s tie. He does this because he has learned that doing what is just is more important than avoiding personal sacrifice. This foreshadows his later bravery of stealing the shed key from his father.
Themes
