Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Change, Coming of Age, and Maturity
Family, Friendship, and Support
Bullying and Injustice vs. Kindness and Compassion
Race and Class
Summary
Analysis
Kenny wakes up periodically throughout the night. Finding himself in the front seat, he sees that everyone except his father is fast asleep. Daniel, for his part, is staring out at the road with a strange smile on his face while the record player repeats the same line over and over again. When Kenny points out that the record is skipping, Daniel says that he thinks there’s something wrong with the Ultra-Glide, though he asks Kenny not to mention anything about it to his mother. Finally, when it’s starting to get light out again, everyone else wakes up. Wilona criticizes Daniel for disregarding the road trip plans, but she can’t argue with the fact that they saved a lot of money by not having to sleep in motels.
When Daniel asks Kenny not to tell his mother that the portable record player is malfunctioning, it becomes clear that there’s still some tension in their marriage surrounding this lavish purchase. Although the rest of the family was overjoyed when Daniel brought home the drive-around turntable, Wilona was upset because it cost a lot of money—and the family doesn’t have much money to spare. The fact that Daniel doesn’t want Wilona to know that the turntable isn’t working indicates that she’s still upset that he spent the money on such an expensive item.
Themes
When they finally arrive at Grandma Sands’s house in Birmingham, Kenny is surprised that the surrounding area doesn’t look so different from Flint. It isn’t full of “log cabins”—there are big houses and large trees everywhere. Most surprising of all, though, is Grandma Sands. She looks very old and is very small. Because he has heard how strict she is, Kenny had expected her to be as big (or bigger) than his father, but now he worries that Byron will run her into the ground.
Kenny learns in this moment that a person doesn’t have to look intimidating to be somebody other people fear. At the same time, though, he knows that Byron is quite capable of defying authority, so he worries that he’ll overwork Grandma Sands. What he doesn’t take into account, though, is that being a strict disciplinarian has nothing to do with a person’s size or age, meaning that Grandma Sands will most likely have no trouble keeping Byron in line.
Themes
When Byron greets Grandma Sands, she makes a joke about his buzzcut and then says they’re going to get along just fine, to which Byron says, “Yes, ma’am.” In fact, he acts very respectfully toward her every time she addresses him. When she asks if he’s good at following directions (because she wants to send him to the store), Kenny pipes up and says that Byron can indeed follow instructions because he’s “not as dumb as he looks.” Grandma Sands glares at Kenny, who instantly regrets his joke. Turning to Wilona, she says that maybe Kenny should stay in Birmingham, too.
Byron’s immediate obedience is surprising, since his general attitude about living in Birmingham has been quite negative. As soon as he sees Grandma Sands, though, it’s as if something in him changes. It’s not clear what, exactly, prompts this change, other than the possibility that he doesn’t want to disrespect such an elderly person. Kenny, on the other hand, isn’t quite as careful about how he behaves in front of Grandma Sands—something he regrets, realizing that she really is as strict and scary as everyone made her out to be.
Themes
As Grandma Sands talks to the Watsons, she mentions someone named Mr. Robert, who seems to live with her. Wilona has never heard of Mr. Robert, so she pulls her mother aside and asks who he is, but Grandma Sands just says she’ll meet Mr. Robert soon. After all, Mr. Robert is still asleep—a comment that seems to upset Wilona. Meanwhile, Kenny is disappointed that Byron has already surrendered to Grandma Sands. He thought they were going to have an epic battle, but it’s obvious Byron won’t be giving his grandmother a hard time. Sensing his brother’s disappointment, Byron claims that Grandma Sands is too old to argue with, since he doesn’t want her death on his hands. But Kenny thinks his brother is lying: in reality, Byron is just afraid of Grandma Sands.
When Wilona responds negatively to the idea of Mr. Robert living with Grandma Sands, the implication is that she has just discovered that her mother has taken a new lover—something that distresses her. Even though she’s a full-grown adult, then, she responds to this new development much like a child might respond, finding it disconcerting to think of her mother dating someone other than her father (who is dead). On another note, Byron’s unwillingness to misbehave in front of Grandma Sands suggests that he really is capable of respecting authority, despite his years of misbehavior in Flint. He has, it seems, come to terms with the fact that misbehaving has negative consequences.
Themes
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