Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in DNA, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Right vs. Wrong
Bullying, Peer Pressure, and Groupthink
Guilt
Reality and Truth
Summary
Analysis
Jan and Mark are on the street, clearly distressed about whatever they’re discussing in vague terms. Jan asks Mark if he’s sure about what he’s telling her. He says he is. Mark says that Cathy “found him” in the woods. Jan is shocked. She asks if anyone else knows. Mark says the two of them and Cathy are, for the moment, the only ones in the loop.
Mark and Jan’s discussion, yet again, serves to set up the problems the group will face in this part of the play—it seems as if there has been a major stumbling block in their plan, one which will require all of them to reorient the decisions they’ve made and the alliances they’ve formed.
Themes
Phil sits alone in a field. He has a bag with him. He takes from it a paper plate, a waffle, butter, jam, and a knife. Leah enters, carrying a suitcase. She tells Phil she’s running away. Phil says nothing. Leah says she doesn’t know where she’s going, but she’s determined to be “wherever the universe decides that [she] should be.” Phil butters his waffle. Leah tells Phil not to try to get her to stay—she’s leaving right now. Phil puts jam on his waffle. Leah is indignant that Phil isn’t even considering stopping her; he’s only thinking about the waffle. She drops her suitcase on the ground and sits down next to Phil.
Leah seems to have reached a breaking point in her conscience and her conduct—but as she abandons her threat and sits back down with Phil, it’s clear that she’s not ready to escape his influence—or that of their group of friends more broadly. She still wants to impress him and be near him, but at the same time, Phil’s especially elaborate snack and the care he puts into preparing it indicates that he’s even more distant from her than usual.
Themes
Leah asks Phil if he saw Jan crying “floods of tears” at Adam’s memorial service. Though she admits that she, too, felt awful during the service, she knows that “everyone felt wonderful”—for once, their friend group is happy, even in their sadness. Cathy is on TV all the time “like a celebrity,” and Adam has become something of a martyr figure throughout the school and the community. Everyone is behaving better lately, Leah says, being more compassionate to younger students and other members of the community. Phil continues to put jam on his waffle and doesn’t say a thing.
Leah is perhaps desperate to find some good in the mess of a situation that’s befallen her and her peers. Her own guilt is small, she wants to believe, compared to the ways in which other people’s lives have improved of late. Leah is so eager to go along with the group that she sidelines her own very real emotions, giving up her dream of leaving town in order to stay tied to the friends that now feel like a source of security to her.
Themes
Not everything, Leah admits, is perfect. Brian’s been put on medication, John Tate hasn’t been seen in many weeks, and the postman they all framed is facing life in prison. Leah asks Phil how he’s feeling. Phil turns to her and considers her question. He actually opens his mouth to answer, but at the last minute, he simply shrugs and goes back to his waffle. Jan and Mark enter and tell Phil and Leah that they need to come with them. Leah picks up her suitcase and follows them off. Phil, irritated, puts his waffle in the plastic bag very carefully.
As Leah discusses the problems now facing their friend group, it becomes clear that everyone—whether they want to admit it or not—is wrestling with guilt in their own ways. Everyone, that is, except perhaps Phil. Leah is perhaps trying to get Phil to feel something or say something, but he remains as disconnected as ever.
Themes
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In the woods, Cathy, Brian, Phil, Leah, Mark, Lou, and Jan are standing around a boy who is dressed in torn and dirty clothes. His forehead is matted with dried blood, and he moves and acts “twitchily.” Phil greets the boy by saying “Hello, Adam.” The boy replies “Alright,” but says nothing else. Brian says he and Cathy found the boy up the hill living in a hedge—he has made an elaborate “hedge complex” that resembles a “hideout.” As Brian tells the story of finding the boy, his speech is erratic and strange. He asks the others if they ever feel like trees are watching them or if they ever long to rub their faces on the ground. No one answers him.
As the group confronts the fact that Adam is still alive, they react in different ways. While most of them seem shocked, Phil is calm and direct, suggesting again that he may have somehow premeditated this entire plot. Brian, meanwhile, is so traumatized by his previous experiences that this new one seems to hardly register as reality. While Phil seems to recognize the boy immediately as Adam, Kelly keeps things ambiguous by calling this character “Boy” in the play’s cast of characters. This choice suggests that there’s a small chance the boy isn’t Adam, and that the characters have become paranoid in their guilt.
Themes
Brian says that when he found the boy, he didn’t seem to know his own name. The boy speaks up and says that his name is Adam. Brian bends down and begins eating dirt, then spits it out once he realizes how “disgusting” it is. Cathy says she has no idea how the boy has survived or what he’s been eating. Brian wonders if the boy has been eating earth. Cathy says she had a hard time coaxing the boy from his hedge and had to threaten to gouge his eyes to get him to come out. Brian asks everyone to gather around and hold hands. Cathy smacks him, and Brian giggles.
Cathy and Brian’s behavior in this passage demonstrates the effects of the prolonged exposure to the pressure and guilt their situation has inspired. While Brian has lost his mind trying to escape the pain, Cathy has become a violent enforcer who emulates the controlling, threatening behavior of those socially superior to her.
Themes
Leah addresses the boy, calling him Adam. The boy seems confused. Leah asks the boy how he is, but he doesn’t answer. Leah turns to Phil and asks if this is some kind of joke. When he doesn’t answer, she says it’s good that they’ve found Adam—Lou tells her they’re all “fucked.” Jan and Mark both ask what they’re going to do. Leah warns everyone to try not to panic. Brian starts giggling. Leah asks Phil what they’re all going to do, but Phil doesn’t answer her.
Even though Phil has been the de facto leader of the group since very near the start of the play, when confronted with a version of reality that’s beyond his control, he becomes unable to think, let alone lead.
Themes
Leah goes over to the boy and asks him what happened. The boy begins a fractured recollection of regaining consciousness in the dark, finding “liquid on [his] head” and crawling through a tunnel towards the light. He thought he was dead, so terrible was the pain in his head. Outside in the open air, he found he couldn’t remember anything—and though the idea scared him, he also felt a certain relief at the idea of being “new.” He claims, though, that his name is Adam, and that he is “not coming back.” The others ask what the boy has been eating, and he tells them he’s been eating leaves, grass, and rabbits. He admits that once he tried to eat a dead bird, but it made him sick.
Even though the boy’s identity can’t be determined with total certainty, his story does seem to confirm that he is indeed Adam. If Adam did fall down the mineshaft but was only injured, it makes sense that he’d remember coming to in the dark and crawling out of the shaft to safety. The ways in which Adam has been trying to survive demonstrate his complete isolation from society. While in his “real” life, he was simply socially isolated from a few of his peers, in this version of his life, he is completely cut off from all of society and all of his own memories, too. Symbolically, the barely-edible things he’s been eating highlights this total isolation; while Phil isolates himself with sweets and snacks, Adam is even more deeply separated from the group.
Themes
Jan and Mark declare that the boy has “lost it.” Leah, addressing Adam, tells him that he’s supposed to be dead. She explains that there’s already been a memorial service and that the school is renaming the science building after Adam. Adam asks if he’s dead, and Lou tells him he’s not. Brian starts giggling, declaring that everything is “great.” Jan and Mark ask what they’re going to do.
Things are quickly descending into chaos and madness. Brian’s state of mind is unstable and unpredictable, and now, with the added threat of a still-living but equally unstable Adam in the mix, it seems as if things could go very wrong any minute. Reality has become blurred to a horrifying degree, as an event that should be joyful—discovering that Adam isn’t dead after all—just sows more fear and discord.
Themes
Phil turns to the boy and asks him if he wants to “come back” to society, or whether he’s happy living in the hedge. Adam thinks for a moment but doesn’t respond. Phil tells Brian to take Adam back to the hedge where he found him, then return alone. Brian, still giddy, leads Adam away. The others ask Phil what’s going on. Phil tells Mark, Jan, and Lou to go home—and warns them not to breathe a word to anyone. If they follow his instructions, no one will get in trouble. Reluctantly, they all leave—Cathy stays behind.
Phil is determined to make sure that no one exposes the truth and negates the version of reality that he has created, even though he now knows that the crime he’s been covering up was never even really committed.
Themes
Leah asks Phil what he’s thinking. She points out that Adam is injured and needs help. Phil says that Adam is “happy” living wild and doesn’t want to return. Leah says that Adam is only happy because he’s lost his mind. She tells Phil that his plan is “insane,” and that their group can’t leave Adam alone. Phil points out that since he’s been “in charge,” all their friends are happier. He asks Leah if one person’s happiness is more important than the group’s.
Phil is attempting to couch his own desire to stay “in charge” as an existential question that might appeal to Leah. He wants to control her, just as he’s been able to control everyone else. At the same time, his question gets at the core of what’s been motivating the group throughout the play: because their scheme has worked out relatively well for most of them (just like bullying Adam always worked out previously), it’s easy for them to ignore the incredible pain that their actions cause a small number of other people.
Themes
Leah begs Phil to remember all the memories they have with Adam, but Phil coldly states that if Adam comes back into society, all of their lives will be ruined. Phil says that Cathy understands him. Leah accuses Phil of ignoring her simply because he doesn’t like what she’s saying. Phil doesn’t even look at Leah, and instead asks Cathy if she understands him. Cathy says she does. Brian returns, giggling madly. Leah asks Phil what will happen if Adam returns to society in a few weeks or a few years. Phil ignores her and tells Cathy to take Brian and “make a game of it.” Brian says he’s excited to play a game.
Leah wants desperately to spare Adam’s life and at last take the opportunity to do the right thing—she knows it might be the last chance they’ll get to fix things. Phil, though, is unwilling to upset the new status quo or face up to his past actions.
Themes
As Leah tries and fails to interject, Phil tells Brian he wants to show him an experiment using a plastic bag. Brian is excited. Phil puts the bag over Brian’s head and ties the handles tight. Brian says it’s a “bit stuffy” in the bag, but continues giggling. Phil looks pointedly at Cathy, then removes the bag from Brian’s head. He tells Brian to follow Cathy and do whatever she tells him to do, and Brian eagerly agrees.
Phil essentially orders Brian to go murder Adam, taking advantage of Brian’s compromised mental state and Cathy’s ruthlessness in order to protect himself and the rest of their group from the consequences that would befall them if Adam ever came out of hiding.
Themes
Leah begs Phil to stop. Phil looks at Leah and says that if everyone already thinks Adam is dead, it won’t make any “difference.” Leah points out that Adam isn’t really dead—he’s alive. Leah tries to stop Cathy and Brian from heading off into the woods, but they ignore her. Leah turns to Phil and begs him to look at her, but he will not. He walks away.
Phil’s cruelty in this passage is intense, to be sure—but it’s also rooted in a genuine questioning of the nature of reality. Adam is, to the rest of the world, dead—so if Brian kills him, it won’t make a difference in the lives of anyone but the few of them. This twisted logic shows how subjective reality is, and how easy it can be to believe that a horrific choice is the only realistic option.
Themes
Later, Phil and Leah are sitting together in the field again. Phil takes out some Starburst candies and eats one. He offers one to Leah, who takes it and begins to cry. Still crying, she puts the candy in her mouth. Phil puts his arm around Leah, who suddenly spits the candy out. She gets up and storms away. Phil calls after her, but she is gone.
This is the first time in the play that Phil has shared food—or physical affection—with anyone. Leah is too traumatized by what she’s seen Phil do and become, however, to accept his advances, and she becomes the one to reject him. In essence, Phil has isolated himself for so long that it’s now impossible for him to connection with anyone else.
Themes
