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
Back at Tita Chato’s, Jay hangs out by the community pool. Mia runs into him there and says that she’s glad he’s back. Jay tells her everything that happened at his grandparents’ house, and Mia takes his hand. She tells him that Brian Santos messaged her to say that she should publish an article about Jay’s experience learning about Jun. Because Jay is American, he has a unique perspective on the drug war that could benefit readers. Mia told Brian Santos that she’d only write the piece with Jay’s approval. They could use pseudonyms, and Reyna already agreed.
Jay shares the whole truth about Jun with Mia, and doesn’t try to hide that truth, even though it doesn’t necessarily flatter Jun. Earlier, Jay thought that Brian Santos was implying that the truth about Jun’s death would be significant in some way. Now, it seems like Santos is saying that Jay’s experience learning about Jun’s death is significant. Meanwhile, throughout the novel, Jay has been told that his American heritage prevents him from understanding the drug war. Santos is now saying that Jay’s American heritage gives him a different perspective on the drug war that might benefit readers—in other words, Jay’s identity is a boon rather than a hindrance. Moreover, Jay’s story would be different from an American journalist telling a story about the drug war, because Jay is Filipino as well as American.
Themes
Jay thinks that it’s Jun’s story, not his, but Mia disagrees: Jay owns his part in things. Jay thinks about “GISING NA PH!” and Tito Danilo’s eulogy, in which he said that Jun’s love could multiply. Maybe the article can do that. Or maybe people will be dismissive after they learn that Jun sold drugs—they might not see Jun as a “full human.” Jay asks if he and Grace can cowrite the article, and Mia says yes. He agrees to try, even if they don’t end up publishing it. He asks Mia why she’s holding his hand, and she says they’re friends. Jay says that there’s more going on, even if Mia has a boyfriend. Mia says only that Jay lives far away.
When Jay is hesitant at first to write the article, Mia argues that he must take responsibility for his own part in this story. That is a key point: Jay had to learn both to grant Jun responsibility for his actions, and take responsibility for his own. In his letter to Jun, Jay promised that he’d honor Jun’s memory. Now, he’s being given an opportunity to do so by sharing his own experience learning the truth about Jun. Jay’s concern that people will dismiss the story when they learn that Jun was selling drugs is fair—after all, Jay was immediately horrified when he learned that information. But telling the story is also a way to push past that reaction, to assert Jun’s humanity despite his relationship to drugs. Jay seems to value open communication much more now than he did before, since he bluntly asks Mia why she’s holding his hand. She seems to cop to their romantic connection, but she apparently doesn’t want to pursue a relationship, since Jay lives in the U.S. That makes her flirtation a little questionable. Then again, Jay has already learned that no one is just good or just bad—even Mia.
Themes
The two of them talk about their lives. Jay feels almost guilty that Jun will never experience this kind of thing again with Reyna. But then Jay imagines writing to Jun about Mia and imagines Jun’s encouragement, and he feels less sad for now. When it’s time for Jay to go, he hugs Mia, and the two of them part ways.
Jay has a new guilt now: he feels bad for experiencing romantic attraction when Jun no longer can. But Jay’s memory of Jun—of his relationship to Jun in life— helps alleviate his guilt. Earlier in the novel, Jay’s thoughts of Jun always made him feel guilty, as he felt he was failing his idealized image of who Jun was. Now his memory of Jun, the real Jun, is a comfort rather than a torment or “ghost.”
Themes
