Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Heroes, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Simplicity of Childhood
Flawed Heroes
Religion
Appearance vs. Reality
Summary
Analysis
Standing before the boarded-up Wreck Center, Francis begins to recall its bloody past as Grenier’s Hall. A place for wedding receptions and other festivities, Grenier’s Hall was darkened forever when Hervey Rochelle, the ex-fiancé of Marie-Blance Touraine, stormed into her wedding reception “guns blazing,” killing the bride and paralyzing her new husband. Later that night, police found Hervey hanged in a toolshed. The tragedy closed Grenier’s Hall for good, leaving it as a boarded-up monument to the suffering it had witnessed.
The Wreck Center is a physical manifestation of the tension between appearances and reality: despite appearing to be a respite for Monument’s youth, the building never overcame its association with the tragedy in its past. Additionally, the Wreck Center has been repeatedly boarded up (after the murder, and during the war). This suggests that repressed or hidden suffering can still be incapacitating and will always return.
Themes
Moving forward in time, Francis then begins to reminisce about the building’s transformation into the Frenchtown Rec. Center—a transformation that occurred the same year Nicole Renard entered his life. However, due to the shoddy workmanship of the renovations, many townspeople still felt the place had an air of bad luck about it. Happy to have the hall renovated at least but still leery of its violent history, it quickly became known as the “Wreck Center.”
By using Nicole’s arrival in Monument as his reference point for other events, Francis shows again how exaggeratedly important Nicole was to his childhood. The shoddy exterior of the hall and its new nickname deepen the idea that simply hiding suffering behind an external disguise cannot effectively erase it.
Themes
After the renovations were completed, Larry LaSalle appeared in Frenchtown to take control of the Wreck Center, taking on pupils in dance, theater, arts and crafts, and calisthenics. Looking for a place in which he could finally fit in, Francis joined the Wreck Center crew, albeit timidly at first. As the cult of personality around Larry grew, thanks to his mysterious past and his ability to see the best in his students, Larry quickly became a fixture of Frenchtown and a hero to his students.
With the revelation that Larry was once a hero to Francis, Francis’s mission to murder Larry becomes more complicated and suggests that a serious conflict has occurred. This tension is strengthened by Francis’s description of Larry’s murky past, which gives Larry’s apparent charisma a subtle hint of the sinister.
Themes
Later in the summer, Nicole began to participate in the dance classes at the Wreck Center. Larry’s star pupil, she easily stood out from the rest of the dancers, further captivating Francis’ attention. One day, she said hello to Francis and he was able to muster enough courage to return her greeting. As awkward as their encounter seemed on the outside, Francis admits internally that her presence at the Wreck Center made his life there “complete.”
Once again, the hyperbolic way that Francis describes even the smallest interaction he has with Nicole shows how his childhood was filled with small, seemingly trivial obstacles that did not require any intense effort or self-awareness to overcome.
Themes
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As Francis recalls being angry with Joey LeBlanc for his constant predictions that doom and suffering would once again return to the now beloved Wreck Center, he is quickly snapped back to the present. Solemnly, Francis turns to leave, admitting that his friend—who has since died on a beach at Iwo Jima—had been right all along.
Again, the tension between the “renovated” Wreck Center and its bloody past is invoked, this time to imply that it has once again became a place of suffering. The reference to Iwo Jima, one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, ultimately hints at the presence of a serious trauma.
Themes
