Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Leavers, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Cultural Identity and Belonging
Migration, Change, and Happiness
Racism, Cultural Insensitivity, and Implicit Bias
Self-Deception and Rationalization
Parenthood, Support, and Expectations
Summary
Analysis
On Father’s Day, Daniel talks to Kay in the kitchen while writing a card for Peter. Kay notes that she’s always been “uncomfortable” about Mother’s Day, since she used to think she didn’t “deserve to celebrate the holiday.” “I had those doubts a lot when you first came to live with us,” she admits. Going on, she tells him that she and Peter were often “afraid of doing something wrong” when he was growing up. Daniel, for his part, doesn’t know what to say, wondering if he should “apologize or reassure her.” “Either way,” Ko writes, “he […] felt implicated, like there was some expectation he wasn’t meeting.”
Daniel’s relationship with his adoptive parents is complex. It’s understandable that Kay might feel uncomfortable on holidays like Mother’s Day. However, by admitting her uneasiness regarding the process of adoption, she puts Daniel in a strange position, making him feel as if he has to soothe her. Simply put, she makes him feel guilty even though it’s not his job to reassure her. After all, he’s not the one who chose to come to Ridgeborough in the first place, so he shouldn’t have to feel responsible for her complicated emotions.
Themes
Kay retrieves a folder containing Daniel’s adoption information, saying that Peter didn’t think she should show it to him. Finally, Daniel tells her he’s spoken to Polly. Forcing a smile, Kay asks if he’s going to talk to Polly again, and he says, “Maybe.” Changing the subject, Kay says that Charles called her several days ago and told her that Daniel hasn’t returned money he borrowed from Angel. When she asked Charles why he was telling her, he told her to ask Daniel. “So, I’m asking,” she says. “She must have been talking about this one time we met up in the city,” Daniel says. “I didn’t have any cash on me and I had to borrow some to pay for dinner.” Kay doesn’t believe this, but Daniel simply thanks her for reminding him to repay Angel, saying, “I’m going to go do that now, on my computer.”
Daniel’s rekindled relationship with Polly poses a threat to Kay, who is hurt that he doesn’t think of her as his real mother. At the same time, she knows she can’t say anything about this, so she tries to hide her feelings by smiling and asking if he’ll talk to Polly again. In this moment, readers sense the unspoken tension lurking in Daniel’s relationship with his adoptive parents—a tension that also brings itself to bear on his and Kay’s conversation about Angel, in which it’s painfully obvious that Daniel is lying to Kay. And though Kay picks up on this deception, she and Daniel aren’t close enough for her to draw the truth out of him.
Themes
Daniel passes his classes for the first term of summer school and begins the second term. Slowly, he begins to correspond with Roland, who has finally booked a show at Jupiter. He also starts recording some of his own music in the evenings. While hanging out at Cody’s house one night, he plays Cody a sample of what he’s been working on. “You’ve changed, Wilkinson,” Cody says, and when Daniel asks him to explain, he says, “In high school, you were all like—Reave me arone. You barely spoke English! Now you’re all American.” Daniel points out that he spoke English in high school, but Cody continues to mock him. “Fuck off, Cody. Fuck you,” he says, getting up to leave. “You need a drummer,” Cody calls after him. “like those guys at the […] Open Mic. They rocked.”
The mere fact that Daniel has become friends with Cody—who subjected him to racist bullying when he first arrived in Ridgeborough—is a sign that Daniel has become accustomed to the entrenched bigotry and implicit biases that run rampant throughout his community. In this scene, though, Cody’s insensitivity is too blatant to ignore, as he mimics a stereotypically Asian accent. Even though Daniel has perhaps gotten used to this kind of prejudice, he recognizes in this moment that he doesn’t need to put up with such blatant racism, especially from people who are supposedly his friends.
Themes
Peter and Kay take Daniel to a fancy restaurant to celebrate his success in the second term of summer school. “To Daniel,” Peter toasts, “for being back on the right path.” There are old paintings of Ridgeborough hung around the restaurant, and Peter points them out and explains that the Wilkinsons used to own the majority of this land. Listening to Peter talk about the family legacy, Daniel thinks about how he’s “the last of the Wilkinsons,” pondering the fact that his great-great-grandfather probably wouldn’t even have acknowledged him as Wilkinson.
Despite the fact that he has lived with Peter and Kay for ten years, Daniel still doesn’t fully identify as a Wilkinson. Having retained (and recently reestablished) his connection to his Chinese identity, it feels strange to think of himself as the legacy of a white family that has never left Ridgeborough. Once again, then, he experiences the often unsettling overlap of his two cultural identities, wondering which one most accurately reflects who he is.
Themes
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The night before Daniel begins the fall term at Carlough, he stays up late working on a song on Peter’s computer. At a certain point, he gets up and walks by Peter and Kay’s room to make sure they’re sleeping. Returning to the study, he closes the door and types in the address for a poker website, telling himself that the site is probably blocked. However, the site comes up, and he logs into an account he never told Peter and Kay about, which still has $50. “He would play just one game and log out, then cancel everything,” Ko writes. Of course, this game leads to another, and another, and before long he has $300, but then he feels Peter’s hand on his shoulder. “I knocked,” Peter says, and Daniel can’t help but watch the screen, making sure he wins the round. “All right. That’s enough now,” Peter says.
Again, Daniel breaks his relapse into a step-by-step progression that makes it easier for him to justify his actions. First, he simply walks by Peter and Kay’s room to see if it would even be possible to play poker. This in and of itself isn’t a transgression, but it is the first step on his path toward relapse. Next, he tells himself that he’s only checking to see if Peter blocked the poker website. By the time he’s finally on the website and logging in, he’s already reached a point of no return.
Themes
At seven the next morning, Daniel packs his things and leaves his guitar. On his way out of the house, he looks at Kay, whose eyes are “puffy from crying.” “You’re not going to ask me to stay?” he says, and she shakes her head. “I got an e-mail from Elaine,” she replies.
Once again, the adults who are supposed to support Daniel fail to provide him with what he needs. It’s understandable that Kay is disappointed in him, since she has just learned from Elaine that he lost $10,000 of Angel’s money. But the fact that this makes her willing to simply let him leave is rather startling, since what he really seems to need is her support. Instead, though, Kay and Peter effectively relinquish their parenting responsibilities because Daniel has failed to live up to their expectations, meaning that he once more finds himself navigating the world without any meaningful parental guidance.
Themes
