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
Days and weeks pass, and Claude continues to change his clothes every day after school. Soon it is Halloween, and all the boys choose a costume. Roo wants to be a pirate, and Ben wants to be Roo. Rigel and Orion want to be conjoined twins, but Claude can’t decide what he wants to be. Rosie suggests a pumpkin, and Orion suggests a policeman, fireman, or fisherman. “Police officer,” Rosie corrects. “Firefighter. Fisher…person?” she says, unsure of herself. There aren’t any girl fishermen, Roo says, and Claude is a man, he adds, so he would naturally be a policeman. “Claude is a boy,” Penn says again, “not a man.” Roo suggests that Claude just dress like a girl for Halloween, since that he is what he wants to be anyway.
The boys’ Halloween costumes reflect how connected to each other they are. Ben wants to be Roo because he looks up to his older brother, and Rigel and Orion want to be conjoined twins because they are already twins and very close. Rosie’s corrections make Orion’s suggestions gender inclusive, as referring only to policemen, firemen, or fisherman excludes women, as does believing women can’t fish for a living simply because they are women. Penn is again quick to point out that Claude is just a boy, that way Penn can more easily convince himself that Claude’s preference for dresses is just a phase.
Themes
Rosie hesitates for just minute, then she asks Claude if he wants to be a girl for Halloween. A girl isn’t really a costume, Claude says, but he has been thinking about being Grumwald. Really, Penn asks? But Grumwald, isn’t real, he says, and only exists in the story. Claude asks Penn what Grumwald looks like, and Penn says he looks just like Claude. On Halloween, Claude comes downstairs dressed in his normal clothes, carrying a large paper cutout of what is obviously a human. On the cutout, Claude has pasted various words and phrases from magazines and catalogs. Penn instantly knows what Claude is aiming at. The cutout is Grumwald, and he is made up of infinite words and stories. It is the best Halloween costume, Penn thinks.
Claude doesn’t think being a girl is a costume because for him it isn’t. Being a girl is Claude’s identity and who he is, not some costume to wear one day and then take off. Claude’s Grumwald costume reflects how important storytelling is to him, just as it is to Penn and Rosie. Grumwald looks just like Claude, so in this case, it is Claude’s “normal” clothes—his boy clothes—that are really the costume.
Themes
Roo stares at Claude’s cutout. “That’s gay,” Roo says. “Roo!” Penn and Rosie yell again. That day, there is a Halloween party and parade at the elementary school, and since Halloween is a busy day for the emergency room, Penn has to go to the parade alone. Dwight Harmon, the elementary school principle, finds Penn at the parade and strikes up a conversion. Penn knows Dwight well, having sent five boys to his school, and he gets along well with him.
Roo’s comment that Claude’s costume is “gay” reflects the homophobia present in American society. In this case, Roo thinks Claude’s costume is bad, so he calls it “gay,” which is offensive and demeaning to the gay community.
Themes
Dwight asks Penn how Ben and Roo are, and then he asks how Rosie is. Lastly, Dwight points at Claude’s costume and asks what he is supposed to be. Penn doesn’t explain. The costume is really nothing, he says. Dwight asks Penn if he thinks Claude is happy, and Penn says he thinks so, but it comes out sounding more like a question. Claude is pretty quiet, Dwight says, and the pictures he draws are a bit concerning. There are some “warning signs,” Dwight says.
Obviously, Dwight is fishing here. He has concerns about Claude and the expression of his gender identity, but he only refers to the “warning signs” in Claude’s pictures. Unlike Miss Appleton, Dwight is a little more tactful in relaying his concerns to Penn. Penn clearly has concerns over Claude’s happiness, too, which is why he forms his answer as a question.
Themes
Get the entire This Is How It Always Is LitChart as a printable PDF.
That night, Penn takes a pile of Claude’s drawings to Rosie. Look at these, he says. Rosie leafs through the brightly colored drawings. She loves Claude’s drawings. They are so imaginative, she says, and she loves how he sees the world. Penn tells her to look closer. “How about how he sees himself?” Penn asks. Rosie looks again and notices that Claude is wearing a dress in every picture, and as she gets lower in the stack, she notices Claude’s drawings of himself grow smaller and smaller, and then disappear altogether.
Claude draws himself in a dress because he identifies as a girl and sees himself as a girl; however, denying his true gender identity and living as a boy is making Claude unhappy and withdrawn. He has been denying who he really is for so long, Claude no longer sees himself at all. Clearly, denying Claude’s true gender identity and forcing him to live as a boy is damaging to his mental health.
Themes
