The magic of God is three. We were the magic of God.
The narrator describes the close bond he shared with his older brothers while growing up and how he always followed them everywhere they went. He didn’t want to be left behind even when he was afraid. He describes the time when the three of them referred to each other in plural, they called themselves “us”, which proves to strong bond they shared.
Then she put her lips on Ma’s lips and held them there, soft and still, and nobody - not me, not Ma, not Joel or Manny, nobody - said a word.
The short part of the novel where the narrator recounts the visit of one of his mother’s friend reveals another aspect of his family life, particularly his mother’s bisexuality. The novel shows the child’s observant nature, even when the adult isn’t paying attention to the actions, and how it affects and influences them.
We hit and we kept on hitting; we were allowed to be what we were, frightened and vengeful - little animals, clawing at what we needed.
In a happy family moment turning violent against the mother, the narration portrays an unhappy dynamic where happiness is doomed to be ruined. The children are only mimicking the parents’ behavior in a more literal way, where one’s desires are fulfilled and fear diminished with the use of violence.
