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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The 57 Bus, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Gender and Sexuality
Adolescent Crime vs. Adult Crime
Binary Thought and Inclusive Language
Discrimination and Social Justice
Accountability, Redemption, and Forgiveness
Summary
Analysis
One day back in 2012, Cherie and Richard skipped school with a group of friends, including their old friend, Skeet. They were headed to the beach when one of their friends began to have a verbal disagreement with another group of kids. Before long, all the boys were fighting, and Skeet ended up hitting one of them with a skateboard. “It was hecka savage,” Cherie says. Later, on their way back from the beach, they saw the other kids talking to the cops, and “then a cruiser pulled up behind the bus.”
This incident, like Richard’s attack on Sasha, bears the hallmarks of “hot cognition” (when a person’s emotions heavily influence their thinking) and poor adolescent decision making, especially in a group setting. The fight begins over seemingly nothing, and it is escalated to violence without thinking about the consequences.
Themes
