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
After church, Tomas drives the family around Manila, and as he does so, Tito Maning points out the president’s palace, known as the Malacañang Palace. Tito Maning tells Jay that Duterte is a great man who is solving the country’s problems. Jay assumes that everyone in the car is thinking about Jun, but Jay still says nothing. Instead, Tito Maning begins to explain the palace’s history. The longest occupant was former president Marcos, whom Jay knows is widely regarded as a dictator who maintained power by force. He was removed after a nonviolent revolution, which Tito Maning considers shameful. However, Tito Maning thinks that Duterte’s legacy will be “even greater.”
This section further portrays Tito Maning’s worldview: he believes in powerful men, and the enforcement of a narrow vision of what is right through strength. It is remarkable that he considers the most shameful thing about Marcos—a brutal dictator who lived ostentatiously lifestyle despite widespread poverty in the rest of his nation—was the fact that Marcos allowed himself to be overthrown without violence. This is another example of how complicated the truth can be: Tito Maning’s characterization of Maning and Duterte’s legacies are unlikely to be shared by many people outside of the Philippines, but Maning absolutely believes what he is saying.
Themes
The family ends up at the National Museum of the Philippines, which contains many sub-museums, such as ones for natural history and art. Tita Ami says that she can take Angel and Grace on errands since they’ve been here before, and Tito Maning eventually agrees. Jay has mixed feelings: he doesn’t want to be alone with his uncle even though he should ask him about Jun. Tito Maning tells Jay to keep his Barong on, and then the two of them enter the anthropology museum. There’s no entrance fee, which Tito Maning says is thanks to Duterte—Duterte wants Filipinos to know their history. Jay keeps wanting to bring up Jun but nervously decides it can wait a bit.
Tita Ami finds ways to “rebel” against Tito Maning in small ways. He wanted everyone to visit the museums together, but she manages to convince him to let her and the girls go off alone. Tito Maning’s praise for Duterte making the museum free is ironic: it seems obviously a good thing to make a museum accessible to all, and to want people to know their history. But, at the same time, Duterte’s government actively hides the truth of its own activities, and Tito Maning has “erased” the history of Jun from his family. Meanwhile, Jay’s nerves about confronting Tito Maning make him feel how simplistic his original idea of forcefully interrogating Tito Maning was.
Themes
Jay ends up finding the museum interesting—there are plenty of cool objects, like Chinese porcelain. But Tito Maning keeps quizzing Jay, and Jay eventually realizes this trip has nothing to do with educating him and everything to do with making him look bad. Next, the two go to the Museum of Fine Arts. Every time Jay thinks about bringing Jun up, he gets light-headed. At the art museum, Tito Maning explains that this building used to be the home of the House of Representatives and Senate before Marcos declared martial law. This doesn’t seem to bother Tito Maning.
It seems likely that Tito Maning is taking his anger at Jay’s dad out on Jay, since Tito Maning didn’t want Jay’s dad to leave the Philippines. This means that Tito Maning’s cruelty toward Jay probably has nothing to do with Jay at all. Meanwhile, Tito Maning continues to praise Marcos blindly, even as he discusses Marcos’s overthrow of the democratic government. Tito Maning is clearly a loyal government servant philosophically aligned with the exertion of power—in this way, the novel continues to raise the possibility that Maning might have allowed Jun’s murder, or worse.
Themes
Tito Maning enjoys Christian art in the museum, but rails against Spanish colonialism at the same time, even though—as Jay reflects—colonialism is how Christianity came to the Philippines. They are currently in a part of the museum that showcases the period of Japanese occupation of the Philippines during World War II. Tito Maning then points out that the museum doesn’t emphasize American colonialism at all—the Americans did many horrible things, he says, like stealing entire villages. Jay didn’t know about any of this, since the American education system doesn’t cover the Philippine-American War very thoroughly. Jay wants to see the upper floor with art from the Marcos era, but Tito Maning dismisses it as “garbage,” and the two head for the exit.
This section of the novel makes clear how complicated Philippine history is, and how embracing parts of Philippine culture (Christianity) means embracing something hateful: colonialism. Maning’s navigation of all this is itself tortured and contradictory: he’s right that colonialism is a huge part of Philippine history and that it’s under-discussed, but he doesn’t seem to think that this hatred of colonialism contradicts with his praise of Marcos, even though Marcos also forcibly maintained power for over a decade. Meanwhile, though, Maning’s comments also make clear that American history is complicated, too, and that Americans such as Jay often have little idea of the sometimes terrible things that the United States has done. Taken together, all of this again emphasizes both Jay’s own cultural dislocation and the complexity of what is “true.”
Themes
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Before they leave, Jay notices a painting: Spoliarium by Juan Luna. The painting depicts men dragging dead gladiators in front of a watching crowd. It reminds a suddenly emotional Jay of the drug war photos he saw online. When Tito Maning finds Jay looking at the painting, Jay finally asks his uncle what happened to Jun. Tito Maning is silent, then wonders if Jay’s dad told Jay how Jun died. Jay says yes—though his mom actually told him—but he asks if that story is true.
It makes sense that Luna’s painting reminds spurs Jay to finally confront Tito Maning. In the painting, the watching crowd does nothing to stop the gladiators’ bodies from being taken. Jay feels guilty for his own inaction, and this welling guilt compels him to finally ask Tito Maning what happened to Jun. It’s interesting that Jay lies to Tito Maning that his dad was the one to tell Jay about Jun. In this case, Jay is hoping to get the truth of Jun’s death, but his own “truth” of who told him about Jun’s death would complicate this conversation, so he lies.
Themes
Tito Maning looks angry now. He says that if Jay wasn’t in contact with Jun when Jun died, he can’t know what happened. Jay responds that he read some articles, but Tito Maning scoffs at that and says that Western media has twisted what’s happening in the Philippines. That’s what he’s been trying to teach Jay all day: invaders come to the country and think they understand it. Filipinos used to accept this condescension, but they won’t anymore. Jay thinks that this isn’t a fair depiction of journalists, but Tito Maning says that the journalists have ignored the country’s drug problems. Meanwhile, the U.S. supported corrupt Filipino politicians, and those politicians accepted drug cartel money.
On the one hand, Tito Maning isn’t wrong to say that Jay doesn’t know anything about Jun or Jun’s situation, since Jay stopped writing to Jun years ago. And it’s also true that Jay doesn’t know much about the situation in the Philippines. At the same time, it’s not entirely clear whether Tito Maning is right that drugs are at the root of all problems in the Philippines or if he is just parroting the government’s position. Regardless, it’s clear that Tito Maning doesn’t trust any information that doesn’t come from the Philippine government. The “truth,” then, means something different to Tito Maning than it does to Jay. It’s also worth noting that Tito Maning is talking about the drug war because he thinks Jun’s death is related to drugs, which contradicts what Jun’s friend told Jay on Instagram, so it’s not clear who’s telling the truth.
Themes
Jay doesn’t know if anything Tito Maning is saying is true. Tito Maning continues: the media never talks about the great job Duterte is doing reducing crime, building bridges, or increasing museum access. Jay insists that Jun wasn’t a drug pusher, which Tito Maning dismisses. He found drugs in Jun’s room years ago and gave him a choice between quitting and leaving, and Jun chose the drugs. Jay doesn’t think this is true, but he can’t be sure. Jun’s letters contained hints of depression, which could have led to self-medication. Tito Maning says that Jun was an addict, and that as a “spoiled American,” Jay wouldn’t understand Tito Maning’s decision.
Jay once believed that if he demanded the truth from Tito Maning, he’d be able to immediately tell if Tito Maning was lying. But Jay was wrong. Jay doesn’t have enough knowledge of Philippine politics to assess Tito Maning’s statements. And obviously, Jay has no way of knowing whether or not Tito Maning is lying about his interaction with Jun. Jay wasn’t in contact with Jun at the time, so he can’t be certain that Jun wasn’t using or dealing drugs. Once again, Tito Maning uses Jay’s American heritage to dismiss him. Tito Maning’s is similar to the argument Jay’s mom made earlier: as an American, Jay can’t understand what’s going on in the Philippines.
Themes
Jay can’t understand how Tito Maning could be so cruel to his own son—Jay’s own dad is distant, but not like this. When they leave the museum, and Jay asks why Tito Maning stole Jun’s letters. Tito Maning says that he didn’t, but now he knows why Jay was in his office; he noticed that the key was in the wrong place. Jay wants to confront him about the list, too, but it’s pointless when he can’t tell what’s true and false.
Experiencing what Tito Maning is like has made Jay more sympathetic to his own father. Meanwhile, Tito Maning here makes clear that even as Jay has suspected that Tito Maning was lying, Tito Maning has known that Jay was lying about being in his office. Jay’s decision not to bother asking for the truth about the list indicate he now realizes that truth and lies are blurred, and he has no way of distinguishing the two.
Themes
Tito Maning says that Jay has to learn respect. Jay’s mom is a white American, and Jay shouldn’t act like he knows anything about the Philippines. Tito Maning announces that when they get home, Jay will go to Tita Chato’s, because he can’t stay at Tito Maning’s any longer. Jay wants to say, “Fuck you” but doesn’t.
Tito Maning is telling Jay the same thing that Jay’s mom told Jay: Jay can’t understand the Philippines, since he’s an outsider. While Jay’s mom was talking about culture and upbringing, though, Tito Maning seems focused on race as the reason that Jay will never be able to understand the Philippines. Interestingly, Tito Maning is now kicking Jay out of his house just like he ultimately kicked Jun out. Tito Maning’s demand for respect is also a demand for the right to exclude anyone who he feels doesn’t give it to him.
Themes
