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Chapter 42
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in My Friends, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Friendship
The Value of Art
Loss and Grief
Substance Abuse
Summary
Analysis
Twenty-five years ago, Ted and Ted’s brother have an uneasy relationship, with his brother sometimes protecting him but other times scaring Ted with his anger. One day, while Ted’s brother is recovering from a fight he was in, he tells Ted the story of their parents’ marriage. Before Ted’s dad got sick, there was a song he used to play for Ted’s mom on the piano. He would play it whenever they had to make up after an argument. Ted’s brother says the first time their dad said “I love you” to their mom, it was in the middle of an argument over driving. She wasn’t used to people saying “I love you” to her, and she didn’t say it back.
Ted’s relationship with his brother reflects his relationship with his hometown as a whole. On the one hand, Ted’s brother does genuinely care for him, and he has moments of vulnerability when he tells Ted nice stories about their parents. On the other hand, there is a sense that when the brothers are younger, Ted’s brother doesn’t fully see or accept Ted for who he is (in part due to Ted’s homosexuality). There are also hints of something dark and potentially violent in Ted’s brother, which is true of other men in the town where they grew up.
Active
Themes
Ted’s brother talks about how Ted’s dad would make jokes with Ted’s mom, which surprises Ted, because he’s never known his dad to be funny. Then, Ted’s brother moves on to darker topics and says that when their dad died, their mom was so shocked and grief-stricken that she couldn’t talk, so his brother learned about the death from a nurse. Apparently, their dad died in their mom’s arms.
Ted learns how much his view of his parents was skewed by his father’s illness. Being older, Ted’s brother has more memories of the good times. Although Ted’s brother exhibits a type of masculinity that leaves little room for vulnerability, this passage shows how he can open up, as he tells Ted more details about their dad’s death.
Active
Themes
That night, Ted goes down to his bed in the basement, and Ted’s brother stumbles around drunkenly upstairs. Ted’s mom comes home, and he can smell her cigarettes through the basement window. Ted is about to fall asleep when he hears a different noise. Joar comes in the basement window with blood on his hands.
Active
Themes
