Children growing up
The novel portrays the bittersweet irony of parenthood. Every parent wants their child to grow up but must deal with the pain of that child distancing themselves from the parent. Just like birds must eventually fly away from their nest, the children have to leave their parents so that they can find their place in the world. The narrator’s mother tells him that she dreads him turning seven because that is when the distancing from her begins.
Understated abuse of the mother
The novel portrays an imperfect, even toxic, family in which most of the verbal (and physical at times) abuse is suffered by the mother. The abuse is not prominently shown, but in sections with the mother’s depression and partial descriptions of her appearance. The toxicity is passed onto the boys, who seeing their father’s behavior towards their mother mimic it, as children usually do.
The ending
The ending could be seen as problematic in the way that the narrator’s family judgmentally reacts upon discovering about his homosexuality. It is clear that the narrator didn’t feel safe enough to tell them the truth and was afraid of their judgement from the description of his final mental breakdown.
“Paps apologized”
After the boys go on an adventure without the knowledge of their parents, they are severely punished by their father. Later Manny reveals to the narrator that “paps apologized” for beating them with his fists. He tells him that he feared what might have happened. The irony of parental punishment is strong in this one, where parents are the ones who end up hurting their children the most out of fear.
