Angels and Magical Powers Symbol Analysis

The angels and “magical powers” mentioned throughout the novel represent the idea that love and emotional support can sustain people in ways that often feel magical. When Kenny is drowning in the whirlpool, he sees a vision of Joey dressed as an angel. This angelic version of Joey tells Kenny to swim toward the surface of the water, thus encouraging him to keep fighting against the strong current keeping him in the depths of the river. Similarly, Joey claims that Kenny came to her church on the day of the bombing and led her to safety just before the bomb went off—but this version of Kenny was wearing different clothes than the real Kenny. What’s more, Kenny later realizes that, although magic might not exist in the elaborate, outlandish way that he used to think, it does exist in other, more ordinary ways. He insists that there’s something magic in the way his father accepts him even when he makes mistakes, or in the way his mother fusses over him to make sure he doesn’t have a smudge on his face. On the whole, then, there’s one commonality between all of the novel’s talk about angels and magic: love. In moments of danger, both Kenny and Joey were motivated to seek out safety because they thought of each other, seeing their loving siblings as a guiding force of sorts. And when Kenny thinks about how magic exists in the everyday interactions he has with his family members, he’s really thinking about how love is a beautiful thing. After all, it’s this exact kind of familial love that convinces him to stop hiding behind the couch by himself after the church bombing, ultimately helping him accept that, though the world is full of cruelty and ugliness, it’s also full of love and kindness—which feels like a magical thing in and of itself.