Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Patron Saints of Nothing, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Truth, Adolescence, and Justice
Responsibility, Guilt, and Blame
Culture and Belonging
Death and Meaning
Summary
Analysis
That night, Tomas drives Jay to Tita Chato’s house. Jay is furious at himself for how weak he acted in front of Tito Maning. He is sure that Tito Maning was definitely lying about Jun and about the letters. However, Jay reflects that Tito Maning is correct that the Philippines isn’t Jay’s home—it hasn’t been his home since Jay’s dad convinced his mom to leave when Jay was one year old. Maybe Jay doesn’t have any right to know what happened to Jun, and maybe he shouldn’t have come at all. He would have gone to school in the fall never knowing anything about Jun’s death, and he would have probably been content with that.
Though Jay has just witnessed how complicated and messy the “truth” can be, he returns immediately to his theory that Tito Maning stole the letters. He still believes that the truth about Jun—and about Jun’s letters—is simple. That said, Jay also wonders whether seeking the truth, simple or not, is the right thing to do. This is a far cry from Jay’s position earlier in the novel, when he believed the truth was unequivocally good. When Jay’s mom told Jay that he couldn’t understand the Philippines, Jay ignored her. But now that Tito Maning has told Jay the same thing, Jay has internalized the message. This demonstrates both that Tito Maning is a dominating presence, but also Jay’s uncertainty about his place in the Philippines. At the same time, Jay’s thought that had he not investigated Jun’s death he would have been content seems like a lie he is telling to himself; he came to the Philippines because he couldn’t live with not knowing what happened to Jun.
Themes
Jay’s dad texts him while Jay is in the car, asking what happened with Tito Maning. Jay doesn’t respond. He texts Mia instead and explains what happened. She responds that now they’ll be living nearer to each, since she lives in Tita Chato’s village. Mia uses several winking faces, and Jay isn’t sure what that means; Mia has a boyfriend. Maybe winking faces are punctuation in the Philippines. Still, Jay thinks that meeting Mia means this trip won’t have been for nothing.
Jay’s dad’s text means that Tito Maning quickly told him that something had happened; but as is typical of this family, Tito Maning didn’t open up about just what had happened. Meanwhile, Jay’s lack of cultural knowledge about the Philippines now extends into the romantic realm, as Jay doesn’t know if Mia is flirting with him because he’s not sure if winky faces mean the same thing in the Philippines that they do in the U.S. But at least in this case Jay doesn’t beat himself up over it.
Themes
