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Chapter 21
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Go-Between, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Social Class and Hierarchy
Coming of Age and Trauma
Masculinity
Fate, Myth, and Magic
Love, Sex, and Marriage
Summary
Analysis
Leo sleeps deeply that night. The next morning, one of the servants wakes him and wishes him a happy birthday. Unusually, it looks like it’s going to rain outside. The servant says they’re living in the “Dog Days.” Leo asks him if he knows of any dogs that have gone mad, but the servant says that human beings go mad too.
The Dog Days are a period of extreme summer heat believed by ancient cultures to be caused by the rising of the dog-star, Sirius, and causing people to go mad or act in strange ways. Leo’s question about madness foreshadows the psychological trauma to come (which the reader knows about from the prologue). The change in the weather implies that a change in the situation is approaching.
Active
Themes
The servant looks at the strange assortment of objects on the desk that Leo used the previous night to make his spell (candles, Bunsen burners, sponges etc.). Leo feels embarrassed, and, when the servant leaves, tidies up. Looking at the grey clouds outside, Leo senses the end of summer.
Leo suspects that his attempts at magic are childish and misguided, but he feels this most when adults are involved. On his own, he reverts to his beliefs in the supernatural world.
Active
Themes
Leo feels stupid about his magic, which suddenly seems like “mumbo-jumbo.” “Goodbye to make-believe!” he tells himself. Now he is thirteen, he thinks, and it’s time to grow up. He despises all of his actions at Brandham Hall, thinking them the actions of “another person.”
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Themes
Leo thinks about boyhood, and the way in which some adults treat boys like children and others treat them like “little men.” He believes that Marian, more than anyone, has “puffed” him up and made him feel important. Perhaps the strange turn of events at Brandham Hall has been because of the heat, he wonders. After all, it incapacitated both Mrs. Maudsley and Marcus.
Active
Themes
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Old Leo interjects, saying, “this is what I think now, but it is also what I felt then.” He balks at the idea that someone might have seen him “savaging” the nightshade—“It was bad enough to have been seen by myself.”
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Themes
Though it’s his birthday, young Leo decides he will put on his original clothes rather than his more luxurious green suit. After prayers, Leo is lightly teased for his clothes, but Trimingham defends him—he says Leo is “quite right” to wear a Norfolk jacket in Norfolk. Furthermore, if it rains, Leo will be in the most suitable dress. Everybody wishes Leo a happy birthday.
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Themes
A parcel has arrived from Leo’s mother. The accompanying note asks Leo to make sure to tell her if he really is unhappy and tells him that if the errands are too tiring that he ought to ask Mrs. Maudsley if someone else can do them. The present is a tie to go with his green suit.
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Themes
Another present, this one from Leo’s aunt, also contains a tie to go with his green suit (which she has heard about from Leo’s mother). The group much prefers the tie Leo’s mother bought, but Trimingham gets Leo to let him try on his aunt’s tie, which he thinks is quite “charming.” Trimingham appeals to Marian and Mr. Maudsley for their opinion. Old Leo interjects that he kept his aunt’s tie for years after.
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Themes
After breakfast, Mrs. Maudsley announces that “today is Leo’s day,” and asks him how he would like to spend it. She suggests a picnic but is apprehensive about the rain; perhaps they could visit nearby Beeston Castle after lunch. They agree on the latter idea. Mrs. Maudsley says that at five o’clock they will have the birthday cake.
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Themes
Leo, believing that he has a “new true personality” that is dull and flat, feels distant from everyone at Brandham Hall. He doesn’t feel any birthday cheer and is uneasy around Marcus. Above all, he has the sensation of being a “spectator.” Just before lunch, Leo goes up to his room and changes back into the green suit, which makes him feel more “normal.”
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