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Chapter 58
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Art of Racing in the Rain, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
What It Means to Be Human
Language and Storytelling
Love and Family
Illness and Death
Destiny and Spirituality
Summary
Analysis
An unnamed champion sits alone near the Tamburello corner on soggy grass. Everyone in the world is celebrating this champion's Formula One victory. A golf cart stops near him, and a young woman with long blonde hair gets out. She has two people in the cart with her. She calls the champion “Dad,” and says that the two people are big fans and that she thinks he'd like to meet them.
Remember that the Tamburello corner is where Senna died. Here, on the same track and at the same corner, this champion (whom we assume is Denny) has just won a Formula One race. Enzo predicted and manifested this before he died, and we see that it came true.
Themes
The man and his child walk toward Denny and Zoë. The man says they're Denny's biggest fans and that his son worships Denny. Denny asks the boy his age and asks if he races. His father says he races the karts and he's very good. He then asks if Denny will sign their program. Denny takes the program and asks the boy his name. The boy replies in Italian that his name is Enzo, and he wants to become a champion. Denny, stunned, stares too long before signing the program and handing it back.
It's implied that Enzo the dog has been reincarnated as Enzo the boy. Denny understands the serendipity of the situation, hence his stunned reaction. Enzo the boy seems like he's going to accomplish what Enzo the dog always wished for and tried to manifest: to be a champion, to be human, and to meet Denny as a man and speak to him.
Themes
The man looks at the program and asks what Denny wrote, and Denny replies that it's his phone number, and when the boy, Enzo, is ready, to call him and Denny will make sure he gets instruction and opportunities to drive. The man thanks Denny profusely and tells him that Enzo says that Denny is better than Senna. Denny ruffles the boy's hair and says he's a racer at heart. Enzo says, in Italian, that your car goes where your eyes go, and Denny laughs and agrees.
In the final act of the novel, Denny completes the cycle of the gift given to him by Luca by promising to pass it on to boy Enzo. Boy Enzo, like Enzo the dog, believes that Denny is better than Senna, and repeats dog Enzo's guiding phrase, further reinforcing that he's a reincarnation of Enzo the dog and further completing that cycle as well.
Themes
