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 unlocks the shed and goes inside. He finds his father’s paint brushes. The old man treasures the brushes because his own father was a painter. Blacky contemplates how his father treats the brushes better than he treats his own children. Blacky knows he’ll be in serious trouble if he takes a brush, but he’ll be in serious trouble no matter what he does. He picks his father’s favorite brush along with a can of black paint.
Blacky has completely changed in his attitude toward his father. Whereas before Blacky either wanted to impress his father or minimize his father’s anger, now Blacky realizes he cannot do either, so he must choose to do what is moral, regardless of what his father will think.
Themes
The old man appears behind Blacky and asks what Blacky is doing in the shed. Blacky says he is just borrowing a brush and some paint to paint over graffiti on the jetty. His father asks what the graffiti says. Blacky contemplates lying but instead decides to tell the truth about wanting to paint over “Boongs piss off.” His father repeats Blacky’s story, then swears and screams at him.
Team-man arrives at the shed along with the rest of Blacky’s siblings. The old man tells them to go away, but they don’t. He then tells Blacky to put away the brush and paint. Blacky thinks his life will be easier if he just puts the paint back and waits until he can cover up the graffiti another way. But then he looks at his father, who is smiling smugly, and Blacky refuses to put away the brush and paint.
Team-man and the siblings prove they can actually support Blacky as family is expected to, despite Blacky’s previous doubts. In a similar way, Blacky sacrifices his personal safety in order to take responsibility for combating the racism of his town, as shown by his refusal to put away the brush.
Themes
Blacky steps toward the door. His father hits him and knocks him to the ground. Greggy begs their father not to hurt Blacky. Blacky lies on the floor, questioning his choices. Suddenly, his sister Claire starts shouting about the car. The family goes to see the car rolling down the driveway with Team-man in the driver’s seat. The old man runs after the car but can’t catch it. The car is rolling toward the cliff over the sea.
Blacky’s actions here mirror his confrontation with Thumper in the first part of the novel, except this time he intends to sacrifice his personal safety to fulfill his duty to oppose racism. Team-man shows his character development by choosing to sacrifice himself in order to save his brother.
Themes
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The old man tries to stop the car but runs into a post and falls to the ground. The car breaks just an inch from the cliff. Tim gets out of the car. Blacky has decided to call Team-man by his first name (Tim) now because the nickname isn’t ironic anymore. Blacky thinks that Tim truly is the best team-man because he was willing to almost jump off a cliff for his family.
Blacky realizes that, when faced with a crisis, Tim is truly willing to sacrifice himself (like a lemming jumping over a cliff) for his family. This challenges his previous assumptions about mutual responsibility and shows that when family puts in the effort, its members truly can support each other as they should.
Themes
The old man lies motionless on the ground. Darcy, hearing the commotion, comes outside. Tim lies and says someone was trying to steal the car and their father chased after the thief before getting hit. Darcy examines the old man and determines he’ll be fine in the morning. They all help the old man back to bed.
Tim’s lie here harkens back to when he lied and blamed Blacky for the day they tried to catch crawfish. Now Tim lies again, but for exactly the opposite purpose: he does so to support Blacky and show how he cares for his brother.
Themes
Blacky is leaving to go to the jetty and all his siblings want to come with him. Blacky agrees to let them come. For once, they have set aside their differences, sisters and brothers, younger siblings and older siblings, fans of The Brady Bunch and fans of Gilligan’s Island, to go to the jetty together.
Blacky’s perspective on his siblings shifts after they help him escape from their father. Now he sees how his family can come together to support each other despite their differences.
Themes
