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
Back in Flint, Kenny spends most of his time hiding behind the couch, where he often hears his parents talking about the church bombing. Not knowing he’s listening, they talk about how the police suspect that two white men bombed the church, killing four little girls and injuring many more. The Watsons left Birmingham that very night, taking everyone—including Byron—back home. Kenny, for his part, can’t stop thinking about the girls in the blue and red dresses—what happened to them? Are they okay? As for Wilona and Daniel, they talk a lot about how to explain to their children what happened that day in Birmingham. Sometimes they’re furious, sometimes they’re calm, and sometimes they just sit there and weep.
It's difficult for Wilona and Daniel to talk to their children about the church bombing, since it was such a gruesome act of racism and cruelty. The problem, of course, is that they can’t—as parents—pretend like everything is all right. After all, Kenny went inside the church and saw for himself the horrible aftermath of racist violence, so it would be pointless and irresponsible for his parents to sugar-coat what happened that day. The novel therefore suggests that the world can be a twisted, scary place and that sometimes there’s nothing to do but acknowledge its ugliness.
Themes
Daniel and Wilona are particularly worried about Kenny, since he keeps disappearing for long stretches of the day. Little do they know that he’s hiding behind the couch. They worry that he saw something terrible at the church that day. The nook behind the couch is where the Watson family’s pets always used to go whenever they were hurt or sick. Sometimes they would stay in there until they got better, so Byron started calling the space the World-Famous Watson Pet Hospital, claiming that it has “magical powers” and that “genies and angels” live there. Kenny has been spending time in the Pet Hospital in the hopes that the magical powers will make him feel better.
Kenny is traumatized by what he saw at the church, but he doesn’t know how to deal with that trauma. Instead of turning to his family members for emotional support, he hopes that hiding behind the couch will help him heal, since that’s what always worked for his sick or injured pets when they crawled back there. The idea that the crawlspace has magical powers comforts him, then, but it also keeps him from reaching out for the help he really needs.
Themes
Wilona urges Kenny to be more active, but he’s uninterested in the things he used to like. He feels like Rufus has somehow changed since he got back, and he’s not interested in playing with dinosaur toys anymore—he’s too old for that, so he gave Rufus and Cody all his dinosaurs. And though Byron takes him to play basketball with his older friends, Kenny rarely wants to leave the Pet Hospital, so he starts sneaking back there whenever possible. When his parents go to bed, for instance, he creeps behind the couch and sleeps there.
Kenny’s sadness in the aftermath of the church bombing makes it hard for him to be interested in daily life. He has witnessed just how cruel and ugly the world can be, so it’s difficult for him to just go along like normal. He therefore loses interest in the things that used to excite him, like playing with dinosaur toys and spending time with Rufus. It’s evident, then, that encountering such hateful and racist violence is a deeply traumatizing experience, especially at the impressionable age of 10.
Themes
One morning, Byron leans over the couch and wakes Kenny up. He promises not to tell their parents where Kenny has been hiding, but he also tries to get his brother to come out and watch TV with him. Kenny refuses. And though Byron isn’t the type to tattle, Kenny senses that he ended up telling their parents, since Wilona and Daniel’s conversations on the couch suddenly change. They stop talking about sad things and instead say nice things about Kenny, though this doesn’t make him feel any better. At one point, Byron starts sleeping on the couch to be near Kenny.
Byron tries to give Kenny the emotional support he needs. He recognizes that his brother is in pain, so he tries to spend time with him and show him that there are still things in life that are worth appreciating. The fact that he tells his parents where Kenny has been hiding also suggests that he’s very worried about his little brother, since he wouldn’t normally tattle. In this case, though, he realizes that it’s important for his parents to know what’s going on with Kenny, since it’s clear that Kenny needs as much support as he can get.
Themes
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After sleeping on the couch, Byron wakes up one morning and convinces Kenny to come out to have some cereal. After they eat, Byron gets him to change out of pajamas and watch cartoons with him. It becomes a regular thing for Byron to appear and somehow convince Kenny to leave the Pet Hospital behind the couch. One morning, he excitedly drags Kenny to the kitchen and shows him two hairs growing out of his chin. Inspired, Kenny decides to check his mustache, which he hasn’t looked at in a while. As soon as he sees his face in the mirror, though, he starts crying.
Byron does everything he can to get Kenny to become more active, clearly thinking that his brother needs to distract himself from his sorrows. And he’s right: Kenny does need to do something other than hide behind the couch, but he also needs to process the horrible things he saw in the church. Seeing his own reflection in the mirror helps him do exactly that, since he has no way of ignoring how sad he feels—after all, he can see the sorrow on his own face. Finally, then, he breaks down.
Themes
Byron closes the bathroom door and rests Kenny’s head in his lap. Kenny can’t stop crying, but Byron doesn’t mind—he tells his little brother to cry as much as he’d like. Through tears, Kenny asks why anyone would bomb a church full of children. Byron admits that he doesn’t know. His parents have told him that the people who did the bombing were sick, but what Byron thinks is that “they just let hate eat them up and turn them into monsters.” Kenny then says that he went to the church and saw the little girls laid out on the ground. He then finally says what has been on his mind: he feels guilty because he thought the Wool Pooh had Joey and instead of staying to fight him off, he ran away.
The way Byron tries to answer Kenny’s question about why people would bomb a church is important, as it highlights the fact that racism is capable of turning people into “monsters.” Such hatred, Byron implies, can overtake people and distort the way they view the world. Perhaps more importantly, though, Byron also admits that there’s no good way to understand why racists bombed the church. An act of violence like that is completely unjustifiable, so there will never be a way to really understand it.
Themes
Byron tells Kenny that the Wool Pooh isn’t real, but Kenny refuses to believe him. Still, Byron insists that the Wool Pooh was just a made-up story. He also says “magic powers” don’t exist, either. He knows Kenny has been spending time behind the couch because he thinks there are magic powers back there that will heal him. But he says that Kenny could spend his entire life back there without any magic powers ever helping him in any way. What’s more, he points out that Joey left the church because she thought she saw Kenny leading her away—if Kenny believes in magic powers and angels behind the couch, then he should also believe that some part of him helped save Joey’s life.
When Kenny says that he thought the Wool Pooh had Joey, Byron tries to make him feel better by revealing that the Wool Pooh doesn’t exist. He also uses this conversation as an opportunity to point out that Kenny can’t just hide from life and hope that “magic powers” will come along at some point and make him feel better. Rather, Kenny has to actively resume his everyday life and learn to take pleasure in the things that used to bring him joy, despite the fact that the world is often ugly and cruel. And if he absolutely wants to believe in “magic powers,” then he should just think about how special it was that Joey thought she saw him that day and ran away from church because of her vision—at the very least, this kind of magic will help Kenny see how much his family members care about him.
Themes
Kenny listens to what Byron says but asks how, exactly, it’s fair that nobody was there to save the four little girls who died in the church bombing. Byron thinks for a moment and then says that it isn’t fair. What’s more, he says that things will never be fair, pointing out how unjust it is that two white men would hate Black people so much that they’re willing to kill children just to make sure Black kids don’t go to the same school as white kids. It’s also unfair that the police in Birmingham seem to know who did the bombing but probably won’t arrest them. None of this, he says, is fair. The only thing to do, he tells Kenny, is to “understand that that’s the way it is and keep on steppin.’”
Byron emphasizes that the world is often full of injustice. Such injustice is especially glaring in the struggle for racial equality, as made clear by the fact that white racists bombed the church in an effort to stop the Black community from advocating for the desegregation of schools in Birmingham. Byron doesn’t mean to depress his little brother by talking about how cruel and unjust the world is, though. Rather, his intention is to show Kenny that he shouldn’t let such things interfere with his own ability to be happy. The world is often a terrible place, he implies, but that doesn’t mean Kenny can’t still try to lead a good life.
Themes
Byron tells Kenny not to go behind the couch anymore. When he leaves the bathroom, the rest of the Watson family is crowded around the door. He tells them Kenny is going to be all right now. Meanwhile, Kenny thinks about how Byron is both right and wrong—for instance, Kenny still believes the Wool Pooh exists. He also thinks there are things like “magic powers or genies or angels” in the world, though maybe these aren’t the things that heal pets behind the couch. Still, these magic things exist in other moments of life, like when Kenny’s father smiles at him when he’s made a mistake, or when his mother bundles him up so he won’t get cold, or when his older brother lets him play basketball with the older kids.
For Kenny, “magic powers” aren’t all that mysterious—rather, he simply finds magic in the everyday love he receives from his family members. To him, it feels like magic to connect with his mother or father, just like it felt like a certain kind of magic when Joey appeared to him in the whirlpool. Magic, the novel implies, is actually quite ordinary and common, since it exists in any bond built on love and support.
Themes
Joey bangs on the bathroom door, asking if Kenny is all right now and, if so, if she can come in and pee. Looking at himself in the mirror, Kenny realizes that Byron was right: he really is going to be okay. Smiling, he thinks it’s true that he’s too old to believe that magic lives behind a couch. As he leaves the bathroom, he decides to go to Rufus’s house to see if he can get some of his dinosaurs back.
The fact that Kenny feels so much better after talking to Byron is a testament to how helpful it can be to have strong support networks. Kenny is happy again because his older brother has given him confidence, showing him that he can still enjoy life even though certain aspects of the world are scary and cruel. With this in mind, he reinvests himself in the things he loves, which is why he goes straight to Rufus’s house, perhaps understanding that friendship is one of the most important and meaningful parts of life.
Themes
