Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The 57 Bus, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Gender and Sexuality
Adolescent Crime vs. Adult Crime
Binary Thought and Inclusive Language
Discrimination and Social Justice
Accountability, Redemption, and Forgiveness
Summary
Analysis
At Oakland High, nobody can believe that Richard has done such a thing. Still, they begin to distance themselves from him. “It is important to say no,” writes Slater. “To say, that’s not us.” The school is worried they will be painted with the same brush, and soon the No H8 movement “sprouts on campus.” The movement raises money for Sasha’s medical bills and make signs and t-shirts with No H8 on them. In the gymnasium, banners read, “NOT IN OUR SCHOOL” and “STAND UP TO HATE.” They even chant at basketball games, “No hate on me! No hate on me! One, two, three…No hate!”
Like the press, the No H8 movement assumes that Richard hates Sasha and others within the LGBTQ community, and each sign and t-shirt they make relies on this same assumption. While the No H8 movement serves to dispel and counteract hate, in this circumstance it has the opposite effect. Richard doesn’t hate Sasha, but the implication that he does is just as damaging and it further fuels the public’s own hate for Richard.
Themes
