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27. September: Releasing the Rebel
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Riding the Bus with My Sister, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Disability, Access, and Self-Determination
Love and Family
Community vs. Individualism
Growth, Change, and Morality
Summary
Analysis
In the present, while they wait in the bus shelter, Beth tells Rachel about Cliff, a new driver who races cars in his spare time. He’s her new favorite, even more than Rodolpho, because he has a Mustang, treats Beth well, and is “fine-looking.” But Rachel thinks about all of the men Beth has had crushes on. She always obsesses over them, which drives them away.
Rachel acknowledges that it’s challenging for her and most of the people she knows to think of Beth as a romantic and sexual being. But she also emphasizes that this is a key part of taking Beth seriously as an autonomous person with the same rights and dignity as everyone else. Beth’s interest in Cliff raises many of the same thorny questions as her relationship with Jesse and her earlier crush on Rodolpho. For instance, should a different standard for appropriate and inappropriate behavior be applied to Beth? And when she crosses the line, to what extent is she responsible for her behavior? What should others do when Beth starts to fixate on a driver who will likely never reciprocate her feelings?
Active
Themes
The bus drivers have also started to run out of patience—especially Claude, who has started telling Beth that she ought to get a job. Beth talked about Claude’s comments with Cliff, then told Claude that Cliff doesn’t think she should have to work. Beth and Claude don’t talk anymore. The Halloween song “The Monster Mash” comes on in the bus shelter, and Beth sings along, as always. She pulls out a Mountain Dew for Cliff and gets on his bus. Suddenly, Rachel is scared: she sees the past repeating itself.
Rachel and the bus drivers are frustrated about Beth’s seeming inability to change. While Rachel’s internet research taught her that people with developmental disabilities can change, if they get significant time and support, Rachel wonders whether Beth will ever reach this stage. Specifically, she worries that Beth will continue to mistreat and alienate people because she will never get around to acknowledging their rights or feelings.
Active
Themes
Chatty, good-looking Cliff tells Rachel about the “grudge” races he drives in on Saturdays. They’re like drag races, held on the local racetrack. Beth tells Rachel about Cliff’s green Mustang, and Cliff jokes about Beth flirting with him. Beth replies that she’s already with Jesse, and just trying to set Cliff up with Olivia. Rachel remembers that Beth is doing the same thing with her and Rick. Beth prattles on about Mountain Dew, her conflicts with the driver Albert, and the drivers’ lounge. The critical voice in Rachel’s head screams, “Damn it Beth, shut up!”
Active
Themes
Cliff explains that his mother used to race cars and his grandfather was a mechanic, so he grew up with a love of driving, which eventually led him to his bus-driving job. Beth cuts off his story to talk about how drivers and passengers are mean to her. Rachel tries and fails to keep Beth on topic, and she starts to understand why so many people can find Beth intolerable: “She is so loud. And she talks all the time. About nothing. […] Over and over and over.” In fact, Rachel and Beth’s dad started to hate driving to work with Beth for the same reason.
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Cliff tells Beth to chill out—she stops talking for a second, then starts up again. Rachel is furious and nearly screams at Beth, but she catches herself and walks to the back of the bus instead. She wishes that she could more easily accept Beth’s faults and lower her expectations for Beth. Rachel and Beth stare at each other across the bus, both filled with pain. Jesse compares Beth’s brain to a clock that nobody else can reset, and Rachel thinks the metaphor is apt.
When Beth leaves the bus to use the bathroom, Rachel takes Beth’s seat. She’s embarrassed to rely so much on life advice from bus drivers, but she talks to Cliff anyway. She asks how he deals with not getting something he wants. He mentions taking up bowling instead of sports in high school because of scoliosis, and he declares looking for alternatives is the only way to deal with disappointment. Meanwhile, Beth sprints past a family of five Halloween-costumed kids and boards the bus.
Rachel gives Beth her seat, and then she realizes what she really fears: Beth has only ever changed after “cataclysmic event[s],” and Rachel worries that Beth will never change again. Rachel also realizes how her solitary writer’s life has changed since she started riding the buses. She resolves to stop being “a clock that nobody can reset.”
