Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in We the Animals, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity and Belonging
Violence, Aggression, and Love
Support and Caretaking
Masculinity and Coming of Age
Summary
Analysis
Led by Manny, the boys walk several miles through the woods carrying backpacks and sleeping bags. In a clearing, they make kites out of trash bags and spend the remaining daylight hours flying them in the wind. When it’s dark, the lights of Paps’s truck suddenly appear, and Manny curses, wishing aloud that they’d chosen to set up camp in the woods, not in the clearing. Knowing that the idea must have been Manny’s Pap’s grabs him and starts beating him, punching him in the face and crotch. All the while, Manny screams at him, calling him a murderer.
Once more, Paps reveals his abusive side, this time tracking down his sons and beating Manny for deciding to camp in the woods without asking for permission first. Of course, it’s understandable that Paps is angry, since he was most likely worried when he couldn’t find his sons, but this is no excuse to use violence against Manny—especially such intense violence, considering that he punches the young boy in the face. It goes without saying that this is a disproportionate response to the kind of behavior that all children exhibit from time to time. Because Paps constantly resorts to physical aggression, though, it’s unfortunately unsurprising that he reacts this way.
Themes
That night, Manny gets into the narrator’s bed and whispers to him about how he dreamt of kites in the sky. What he outlines sounds like a confused, strange dream, but this doesn’t surprise the narrator because Manny is always saying crazy things to him. Manny seeks the narrator out because he knows he’ll listen, unlike Joel, who blocks Manny out whenever he speaks this way. As Manny whispers, the narrator senses that he’s incredibly tense, thinking he might even cry out or scream. Instead, though, Manny tells him Paps apologized for hitting him with closed fists. Apparently, Paps said he was afraid something bad might happen to his sons, which is why he lost his temper.
The effect of Paps’s violence emerges in this moment, as the narrator senses just how tightly wound Manny is after his encounter with his aggressive father. Interestingly enough, it also becomes clear that Paps is remorseful about how he reacted, subtly implying that he hit Manny out of love, since he claims that the only reason he responded so violently was because he was terrified that something bad might happen to his children. It’s rather uncomfortable to consider that this might be true, since Pap legitimately does process his emotions by resorting to violence and physical aggression. However, this doesn’t excuse his behavior, especially considering just how thoroughly it affects Manny, who is now so tense and troubled that it seems like he might scream out at any moment.
Themes
Manny also tells the narrator that in his dream, there were good kites and bad kites, but all of them got tangled up with one another. He says he used to believe that he and his brothers could escape, thinking—for example—that the kites in the field that day could lift them into the safety of heaven. Now, though, he knows the good and the bad are all mixed up in the world, as if God threw a handful of seeds into the mud. As the narrator begins to fall asleep, Manny continues talking, saying that they need to find a way to reverse gravity so they can fall toward heaven—an image that works its way into the narrator’s hazy, half-asleep mind, creating a picture in which he and his brothers fall through the stars until reaching God’s safety.
This is a touching moment in which Manny seeks refuge in his brother’s bed, speaking softly to him about his strange dream. As the narrator listens, the strength of the brothers’ bond is undeniable, and readers see that they truly do turn to one another in times of duress, depending on each other to furnish the emotional support that their parents are so unable to give.
Themes
