Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in This Is How It Always Is, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Gender and Binaries
Secrets and Misunderstanding
Violence and Discrimination
Storytelling
Family
Summary
Analysis
On the night Claude is forming, while Rosie and Claude are at the hospital getting X-rayed, Penn is at home doing the bedtime routine, which, he always says, is “a study in chaos theory.” Penn closes his eyes, takes a cleansing breath, and turns back to the tub to lift out the next child. After their bath, he lines up the children to dress them, going down the line with a pile of pajamas. When he is done, he realizes that he has mixed up all the pajama tops and bottoms, but he decides it is good enough.
Penn’s language here reflects his education in literary theory. Getting four children bathed and to bed is a lot of work, and it is further evidence of Penn’s resistance to stereotypical gender roles. Childrearing such as this is generally assumed to be a woman’s job, but Penn does it every day while Rosie goes out to earn a living.
Themes
All four of the children pile into Roo’s room for storytime. Storytime is just as chaotic as bath time, and after four boys each grab the book to look at the pictures, it can take half the night. To cut down on the chaos, Penn began to tell stories instead of read them, and he has a “magic book”—a spiral notebook full of blank pages—that only he can see. He tells them the same story he told Rosie about Grumwald the prince, which has no beginning and no end. The children excitedly ask Penn what happens next, and he says they will have to wait until tomorrow to find out. Now, says Penn, it is bedtime.
Storytime with the children mirrors Rosie and Penn’s time in the hospital waiting room, where, like Scheherazade, Penn keeps the children interested by continuing the story and stringing it along day after day. This connection underscores the power of storytelling, as stories bring Penn and Rosie together, as well as Penn and the children. Penn’s “magic book” reflects his identity and talent as a writer—he is able to make up stories on the spot without reading them.
Themes
Bedtime is always one of the most difficult parts of Penn’s day. Sure, he admits, it isn’t diagnosing a pulmonary embolism, but it must be done all the same, and the pulmonary embolism can’t be diagnosed without it. There is always plenty to do after bedtime—dishes, school lunches to pack, cleaning—but the only thing Penn has energy for after bedtime is drinking or watching television. On the night Claude is forming, Penn thinks both sound good, but he is asleep before he finishes his first drink.
Penn downplays the importance of his work at home raising his family and compares it to Rosie’s work at the hospital, but he also recognizes his work as necessary and an important part of the teamwork that allows Rosie’s work to be done in the first place. In Penn’s opinion, these are not gendered roles, they are simply things that need to be done.
Themes
