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
After speaking to Grandma Sands on the phone, Daniel and Wilona start acting differently. Wilona spends time making budgetary calculations in a notebook while Daniel goes around town buying new things for the car. One weekend morning, Kenny gets up early and finds his dad shaving in the bathroom. When he was younger, Kenny used to let his dad lather his face in shaving cream so that he could pretend to shave alongside Daniel. His father offers to do that, but Kenny feels too old for that now—besides, he has a real mustache coming in, though Daniel has to look really closely to see it.
At this point, it’s unclear what Daniel and Wilona are planning, though it’s obvious that they’re planning something. For the time being, though, Kenny just focuses on his daily life, which involves bonding with his father. The fact that he claims to have a mustache at 10 years old is humorous and endearing, suggesting that Kenny wants to be seen as an adult even though he’s still very much a young boy.
Themes
After shaving, Daniel tells Kenny he’ll be back soon and leaves the house without telling anyone where he’s going. When he returns, he summons everyone outside to see the final improvement he has made to the Brown Bomber. Everyone is excited—even Byron. There’s a small towel over something in the middle of the dashboard. After letting the suspense build, Daniel finally lets Kenny take the towel off: it’s a record player. All of the kids are thrilled and can’t believe that their car has something as cool as a “drive-around record player.” But Wilona just shoots Daniel a look and goes inside, mumbling as she goes about money.
In 1963, it was a big deal to have a record player in a car—it wasn’t like contemporary times, when people can easily listen to seemingly any song they want wherever they go. The mere fact that Daniel buys a portable turntable is interesting from a financial perspective, since it has already been made clear that the Watsons have enough money to get by but certainly aren’t wealthy. After all, Wilona even told Byron that the family sometimes relies on government assistance in order to feed itself. With this in mind, it’s apparent that Daniel has made a lavish purchase, which upsets Wilona because it will most likely strain the family’s finances.
Themes
Daniel and the kids spend the day sitting in the Brown Bomber listening to their favorite records. Even Wilona eventually comes outside to hear the new system. After a while, they turn down the music and share some important news with the children: the family will be driving down to Birmingham, Alabama, where Byron will live for the summer with Grandma Sands. If he behaves, he can come back to Flint for the school year. If not, though, he will stay in Alabama for the whole year—what happens is really up to him and how he decides to behave.
By forcing Byron to live in Birmingham, Alabama, Daniel and Wilona show their son that his misbehavior has consequences. They further emphasize the importance of taking accountability by telling him that only he can determine whether or not he’s allowed to come back to Flint at the end of the summer. If he behaves, he can come home; if not, he’ll have to stay. His fate is therefore up to him, giving him no choice but to take responsibility for the way he conducts his life.
Themes
Byron is beside himself, but his mother reminds him of all the ways he has misbehaved in the last year. He has skipped school, lit fires, stolen money from her purse, run up a huge bill at the grocery store, and has gotten in trouble in many other ways. No matter what his parents tell him, he never listens. Wilona also says that Byron will like Birmingham, adding that her old neighborhood is safe, despite all of the unrest they’ve been hearing about in Birmingham on the news. Enraged, Byron gets out of the car, slams the door, and curses. Daniel makes a move to go after him, but Wilona stops him, saying that Byron might as well get such behavior out of his system before he’s under the care of the strict Grandma Sands.
Again, the adults in Byron and Kenny’s life mention tensions surrounding racial inequality and segregation—issues that the young boys haven’t had to face in their daily lives (at least not in immediately observable ways). Birmingham, however, was at the center of the civil rights movement in 1963, so it’s unlikely that the children will be able to ignore what’s going on any longer. For the time being, though, Byron is more focused on the fact that his parents have decided to punish him by sending him away, which he finds deeply unfair.
Themes
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