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
Daniel and Roland play another show, and this time it goes well. Hutch—the Jupiter booker—is there and likes their new sound, and people who normally overlook Daniel come up to congratulate him on his playing. That week, Psychic Hearts books a number of shows, including one on May 15th that Hutch promises to attend. If it goes well, he tells them, he’ll set up a show for them at Jupiter. During this period, Roland does an interview with an online music magazine, taking the majority of the credit for the band. He also sets up a photo shoot, and when the pictures come back, Daniel notices that he’s standing in the dark in the background, but he doesn’t say anything, happy just to be playing music. When they record an EP at their friend’s studio, though, he admits he doesn’t like the new sound.
The consequences of Daniel’s relapse aren’t necessarily clear. In the immediate aftermath of his most recent bout of gambling, he feels relieved to have finally “confirmed his failures,” ultimately granting himself permission to be the person he wants to be. In this chapter, though, he seems to have lost this sense of reckless abandon. Although he isn’t interested in the music Psychic Hearts makes, he complacently goes along with Roland’s various schemes, thereby conforming once again to the various expectations other people place upon him. One might argue that his post-gambling transformation fizzles to nothing because the thrill of relapse doesn’t lead to true happiness or independence, but to a short-lived and inauthentic sense of invigoration.
Themes
As Roland and Daniel argue in their friend’s recording studio about the direction of Psychic Hearts, Daniel realizes it’s Kay’s birthday, so he goes outside and calls her. She tells him that she talked the dean of Carlough into meeting with him, saying he might still be able to get in for the fall semester. The meeting, she tells him, will be on May 15th. “You need to be up here by that afternoon,” she tells him.
The last time Daniel interacted with Peter and Kay, Peter made it sound like they were done helping him. Now, though, Kay reveals that she hasn’t given up on him, and though this is a nice gesture and a vote of confidence, there’s no denying that she’s still trying to push him into the lifestyle she wants him to lead, not necessarily the one he’s interested in pursuing. This is emphasized by the fact that the meeting with the dean conflicts with Daniel’s plan to play a show with Psychic Hearts. Still, though, Kay’s concern at least shows she still cares about her adopted son.
Themes
Two weeks before their show on May 15th, Psychic Hearts plays a smaller gig that Michael attends. After their set, he comes over and congratulates Daniel and Roland, genuinely impressed by their musical talent. When Michael asks Daniel if he talked to Polly, Roland is surprised to hear he was even considering such a thing. “Sorry, I know it’s your birth mom and all, but if she doesn’t want to talk to you, it’s her loss,” he says. “I told you, if you called you’d regret it.” This startles Michael, who thinks it’s ridiculous for Roland to discourage Daniel from calling his own mother, but Roland doesn’t let up, reminding Daniel that Polly didn’t “raise” him. Wrapping up the conversation, Michael says he has to go, adding, “Seriously, you guys rocked. You were like a harder Maroon 5,” which Daniel and Roland do not take as a compliment.
In this scene, Daniel is once again torn between two worlds. Because Michael knows him as Deming and has spent time with Polly, he urges him to reach out to his mother. Roland, on the other hand, knows him as the teenage boy who grew up trying to forget about his mother, which is why he insists Daniel shouldn’t get in touch with her. Caught between his friends, Daniel finds himself at the intersection of his dual identity, his past life suddenly invading the present.
Themes
That night, Daniel goes home and calls Polly, expecting to get her voicemail. To his surprise, she answers. “Hello, Deming,” she says. “I’m glad you called again.” Although he originally wanted to yell at her, he finds himself unable to do anything but make small talk, telling her he lives in Manhattan, works at a restaurant, and plays guitar in a band. She, for her part, tells him she lives in an apartment in Fuzhou, is married to a man who owns a textile factory, and is the “assistant director of an English school.” When she says this, all Daniel can think is that she has a “perfect” life without him. He then starts speaking in English, but she continues to use Fuzhounese after saying only one thickly accented sentence.
After ten years apart, Daniel and Polly have a lot of catching up to do. As they talk, Daniel avoids asking her why she left, suddenly unable to hold her accountable or accuse her of abandoning him. However, this feeling of abandonment lurks just beneath the surface, as Daniel balks at how “perfect” Polly’s life sounds. As if to punish her, then, he switches to English, thereby changing the power dynamics so that she’s the one who has to strain to speak, not him. In this regard, he acts on his feelings of resentment.
Themes
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Daniel tells his mother that he no longer goes by Deming. “Daniel Wilkinson?” Polly asks when he tells her his name. Keeping the conversation going, Daniel tells her he saw Vivian and Michael, saying that he recently learned about Vivian’s decision to “give [him] away to a foster family.” After a long silence, Polly says, “That bitch. How could she do that?” Despite these words, Daniel senses that her response is “too measured and quiet, lacking the fire he remembered.” For the rest of the conversation, they speak idly, describing their respective apartments until Polly suddenly says in a hushed tone that she has to go and that she’ll call Daniel the following day.
Daniel wants his mother to be outraged when she hears that Vivian sent him into permanent foster care. Of course, it’s unrealistic to think that she would be genuinely mad at Vivian, since she certainly knows that she is the one to blame for what happened to Daniel, not her friend. But Daniel has decided to give his mother the benefit of the doubt so that he can talk to her—after all, if he acknowledged how angry he is at her, he wouldn’t be able to rekindle their relationship. As such, he directs his resentment at Vivian.
Themes
As promised, Polly calls Daniel the next day, but he’s at work, so she leaves a message saying they need to arrange specific times to talk. The next day, he misses her call again, and she leaves another message suggesting that they speak at 5:30 the next morning. Getting up early, he calls her, and they talk about when they used to live in New York together. Polly reveals that she was pregnant when she came to America, adding that she also had $50,000 of debt. He, in turn, tells her that he grew up in Ridgeborough with Peter and Kay and that he’s “taking a break from school.” Finally, he asks why she never tried to find him, and she tells him she “looked for years,” but Leon didn’t know where he’d gone, so it was impossible.
Daniel still doesn’t ask Polly why she left in the first place, but he does ask why she never tried to track him down. When she tells him that she did make an attempt, he sees that she actually does care about him, though this doesn’t change the fact that they’ve been apart for ten years.
Themes
Polly asks Daniel if he’s all right, and Daniel can sense how desperate she is to hear him say his life turned out fine. “To acknowledge his mother’s regret meant he had to think of what her leaving had done to him, the nights he’d woken up in Ridgeborough in such grief it felt like his lungs were seizing,” Ko writes. As such, he points out that nothing he says will “excuse” her for leaving. “You can’t pretend you didn’t mess up, that you did nothing wrong.” In response, Polly says there are a number of things Daniel doesn’t understand, urging him to ask Leon for more details. He then hears a man’s voice in the background, and Polly says, “My husband is home. I have to get off the phone. I’ll call you.” After the call, he realizes she hasn’t told her husband about him.
When Polly tries to get Daniel to assure her that he’s all right, she seeks absolution. In this moment, she wants him to “excuse” her, ultimately asking him to do the emotional heavy lifting that she should be doing herself. But Daniel is unwilling to grant her this kind of relief, and though he doesn’t yet know why his mother left, he insinuates that she did something “wrong” and that it’s not his job to forgive her. This would be a good time for Polly to explain why she left, but she doesn’t want to do this, instead urging Daniel to talk to Leon, once more avoiding the difficult task of owning up to whatever happened.
Themes
