Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Trash, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Childhood, Poverty, and Injustice
Corruption, Power, and Theft
Community, Loyalty, and Solidarity
Intelligence, Education, and Street Smarts
Summary
Analysis
Jun says that he no longer goes by “Rat.” Even though he’s narrating the last part of the boys’ story, they “are a team now.” After finding the $6,000,000, the boys try to figure out what to do with the money. They can’t take it to a bank since it would just be taken from them. Rat suggests throwing it in Behala, for anyone to find. They laugh and they bundle the money that Senator Zapanta stole from his people in two sacks, grab Pia Dante, and ride back to Behala in a cart with some street kids, entering from the canal at the back. Jun goes straight to the Mission School and puts back Father Juilliard’s money (leaving another drawing). He thinks his next idea saved their lives: he grabs some donated school uniforms and backpacks from a cupboard and he takes them to the others.
Jun’s heartening description of the boys as a “team” shows how strongly their bond has grown and emphasizes the solidarity between them. Their plan to dump the money in Behala and thereby distribute it among the city’s poorest while keeping out of Zapanta’s hands is another clever move that highlights the boys’ sharp-witted intelligence, moral fortitude, and solidarity with their wider community. Rat again reveals his quick thinking and streetwise intelligence when he wisely grabs disguises for the group.
Themes
The group stuffs four backpacks with money for themselves and they unfurl the rest (most of it) into the heavy typhoon wind, which scatters money like a storm all over Behala. Jun wishes he could have seen the first boy to pick up a $100 bill instead of stupp, but he knows they can’t hang around. At the bottom of the sack, Raphael finds another letter from José Angelico, which Gardo holds onto. They change into the school uniforms, wash their faces, and leave (with Pia Dante in tow) to catch a train.
Jun’s moving wish to see the joy on the children’s faces when they discover the scattered money emphasizes the sense of community among Behala’s poor because it highlights the way they share in each other’s pain and joy. The unquestioning way the boys adopt Pia into their group similarly emphasizes their loyalty to José Angelico and solidarity with poor, young orphans.
Themes
