Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Shuggie Bain, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity and Societal Expectations
Coming of Age and Trauma
Addiction and Abandonment
Pride and Appearances
Sectarianism
Summary
Analysis
In his small tenement room, Shuggie cleans the porcelain ornaments that once belonged to his mother. When he moved in, several of the pieces chipped. As he stares at them, he is mad. He has spent his whole life trying to be good and cautious, but things keep breaking. Shuggie holds one of the ornaments in his hand, a fawn that had a nick in its ear. One by one, he snaps off its porcelain legs, tossing the broken figure behind his bed when he can’t bear to look at it anymore.
As Shuggie stares at the broken ornament, he is confronted by the loss of his mother. The figurines, inherited from Agnes after her death, are symbolic of both her fragility and her beauty. His frustration as he destroys the fawn has everything to do with his anger at Agnes for resisting his efforts to keep her whole.
Themes
Shuggie leaves, climbing on a bus that takes him across town. As he looks at the city passing, he thinks of Agnes’s funeral. Leek came on the overnight bus after Shuggie called to tell him about Agnes. By the time Leek arrived, Shuggie had been watching over her corpse—caring for her as if she were still living—for two days. Shuggie told Leek he wished he’d tried harder to save her without telling him what really happened. Together, they made the cremation arrangements. Neither Catherine nor Shug came, though Eugene and some of the neighbor women from Pithead did. As they watched her casket burn, Leek said, “that’s her away,” the same thing he used to say to Shuggie whenever Agnes left drunk in a cab.
Despite Leek’s acceptance that Agnes would eventually kill herself by drinking, he still shows up to help his brother make arrangements. Unlike Shug and Catherine, who left and never reconciled with Agnes—or Shuggie—Leek has managed to retain a connection to his complicated home of origin. Together Leek, Shuggie, and Eugene attend Agnes’s cremation; all the people who tried to help her, sacrificing bits of themselves to do so, are represented. In echoing the same language he used to use when Agnes would disappear in a strange cab, Leek’s remark equates Agnes’s death to an ongoing sense of abandonment.
Themes
Back on his bus ride, Shuggie makes plans to call Leek later in the day to ask about his baby. He knows they will talk about Shuggie coming to visit at some point, as they usually do. There won’t be much more to say after that. Shuggie gets off the bus at the main station and continues his errands, stopping for strawberry tarts at a bakery before walking on through the city center and along the river. Sitting there on the fence is Leanne, waiting where they agreed to meet. He notices how closed off and inward her expression has become in the year since they met. Leanne gives him a hard time for making her wait in the rain.
While Leek and Shuggie’s relationship is not perfect, there is hope in it. Leek’s happiness with his wife and baby is something neither he nor Shuggie could have imagined during the worst moments of their shared life with Agnes. Shuggie may not have found his place in the way Leek has, and getting to that place will be more difficult because of society’s homophobia, but there is more hope than there has ever been. In contrast, Shuggie sees his own former dejection and stress in Leanne’s expression; she is still trapped in a spiral with her own alcoholic mother.
Themes
Shuggie asks if Leanne wants to walk around. She calls him predictable but agrees. First, she has something she wants to do. Shuggie knows immediately what she’s planning and tries to discourage her, though he knows he’d do the same thing if his mother was alive. Leanne waves Shuggie off, saying she knows it’s hopeless to try, but she has to anyway. Leanne hands him some tea that’s gone cold. Shuggie tells her that it would have been Agnes’s birthday today. He produces a bottle of ginger soda and the tarts, which the two share in honor of Agnes. The worry starts to leave Leanne’s face as she eats. She puts the last tart aside.
Shuggie is annoyed with Leanne because she wants to visit her mother, even though he knows Moira won’t care. However, the year that Shuggie has had on his own since Agnes’s death has given him a better perspective on how little he was able to see when he was in the thick of his desperation. In turn, this realization pushes him to be more tender toward his friend. Today’s visit with Moira is even more poignant than normal, given that it is both Agnes’s birthday and nearly the one-year anniversary of her death.
Themes
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As Shuggie and Leanne sit and gossip, Leanne bites at her cuticles. She doesn’t notice when a woman nears them, trying to convince the much younger man whose arm she’s hanging on to keep her company. Shuggie points her out to Leanne, and they both sigh. The man breaks free from the woman, and she just stands there. Shuggie and Leanne take her in. Shuggie thinks she looks worse than the last time he saw her, but he can still see traces of makeup on her face, and at least she’s fully clothed.
Shuggie is able to see Moira more truthfully than Leanne, who is locked in the middle of her struggle with her mother. The sensitivity to appearance that Shuggie learned from his mother is also apparent in his assessment of Moira. There is lingering judgement about her state in his assessment, but he also understands from his own experience that small victories—like Moira being fully clothed—matter.
Themes
Leanne gets up from the fence, bringing along the bags at her feet. They are filled with clean laundry and food. Shuggie remembers the dented cans of fish he got from Kilfeathers and adds them to the bag. At first, Leanne tells him that the woman will have no way to open them, but she changes her mind. She says Moira always finds a way. As Leanne crosses the street to her mother, Moira rolls her eyes. She lets Leanne lead her back over to their spot by the river. Leanne offers Moira the last tart, and Shuggie is repulsed by the way she sticks her tongue into the jammy center. He can see the bags under her eyes are deeper and more teeth are missing from her mouth. Seeing Moira makes Shuggie miss Agnes.
Though Shuggie is horrified by Moira’s lack of decorum, he cannot overlook the similarities between her and Agnes. The cans that Shuggie bought on discount at his work at the beginning of the novel were not intended for himself, but for Moira all along. Though Shuggie finds it difficult to be around Moira because she reminds him so much of the worst parts of Agnes, his care for Leanne drives his desire to help. This call-back to the start of the story also sheds new light on Shuggie’s spare existence. At the beginning of the story, his bare room and lack of luxuries seemed dire, but now, at the end of the novel, his circumstances feel oddly victorious.
Themes
When Leanne finishes telling Moira about the happenings at home, she has Shuggie hold up the woman’s overcoat so Leanne can help her mother change into clean clothes. Moira is impatient, wanting to get back to her friends before they finish drinking the last of what they have on hand. As Leanne slides fresh underwear on her mother, Moira gives Shuggie a hard time for being there with her instead of out chasing girls. Shuggie replies that he is not there for Moira. He asks her how she has been, dodging her unkindness, but she mocks his posh grammar and accent. Eventually, she tells them about her boyfriend, laughing as she recounts how he pretends to be blind in order to steal others’ drinks. Shuggie can tell Moira’s laughter makes Leanne happy.
Shuggie tries to hold his ground as Leanne’s friend rather than slipping into his feelings of resentment as another child of an alcoholic. Moira’s cruelty makes this extra challenging, especially when she throws homophobic slurs at Shuggie. Though Shuggie’s rage at Moira is spiking, he is able to see through it and recognize the happiness that seeing Moira gives Leanne.
Themes
Moira asks Shuggie for money before she leaves. She accepts the rest of the ginger fizz instead, gulping it down obscenely. Shuggie can’t stop himself from asking her why she’s like this. Moira proclaims that she likes to have a good time, and everyone is just jealous of her. Shuggie tells Moira that her daughter loves her, but Leanne asks him to stop talking. Moira responds that love is just another way for people to take advantage of each other. As Leanne collects her mother’s dirty clothes, Moira says she has to get to the pubs before they fill up. Leanne tells her to take care of herself. Shuggie reaches into Moira’s coat to fix the lining of her skirt, which is rumpled.
Moira’s request for money sparks Shuggie’s own trauma. The accusing questions he spits at her are not for her at all, in the end. Instead, they are the questions he can no longer ask Agnes. Moira’s retorts about love reveal exactly how far her alcoholism has taken her from feeling or receiving love. Love is a threat to the selfishness that fuels her actions, just as it was for Agnes. Shuggie knows he can’t change her mind, so he shows kindness in the way he knows best: fixing her appearance.
Themes
As Moira stumbles away with her new clothes and food, Leanne begs Shuggie not to say anything. He says he won’t, but he asks if Leanne feels any better. She shrugs, pulling up her hair. Shuggie notices her face harden again. She bites the skin around her fingers, and Shuggie tells her about how nice it was the year Agnes was sober. He reaches over to pull a loose thread off Leanne’s coat. When she suggests they go for a walk, he recalls her earlier jab and calls her predictable. She jokes back, saying he just wants to go to the arcade to check out cute boys. Shuggie freezes, ashamed. Leanne gestures him to stop as he begins to deny it, then tells him she thinks one boy they have seen there may have a crush on Shuggie.
Leanne’s usual sensitivity has been dulled by the presence of her mother—her need to care for her has monopolized her attention—but as Moira finally leaves, she returns to herself and picks up on the severity of Shuggie’s agitation. She cannot carry his frustration and sadness; her own feelings are heavy enough. In the same way that Leek came to realize he couldn’t convince Shuggie to come to terms with the reality of Agnes’s decline until he was ready, Shuggie knows that Leanne will need to make the same realizations about Moira when she is ready. Leanne returns to her usual self as they walk away, poking fun at Shuggie about his crush on a boy not to shame him, but to playfully show that she cares about him.
Themes
As they walk away, Leanne pantomimes throwing her mother’s dirty clothes in the river. She places her arm in Shuggie’s, laughing. Shuggie tells her that hearing about her brother’s antics makes him wish they could go dancing. Leanne finds this hilarious, pointing at his posh shoes. She tells Shuggie that she doesn’t believe he can dance. Shuggie boldly sprints ahead of her then, stopping to show her just how well he can spin.
In pretending to throw Moira’s clothes in the river, Leanne acknowledges the pain and frustration that characterizes her interactions with her mother. In return, Shuggie tries to lift both their moods by recommending that they dance. Leanne’s incredulity about his ability to dance sparks something in Shuggie. The one spin he shows her in response is a final acceptance of both his identity and his timid hope for the future.
Themes
