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Chapter 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Change, Coming of Age, and Maturity
Family, Friendship, and Support
Bullying and Injustice vs. Kindness and Compassion
Race and Class
Summary
Analysis
At Kenny’s school, Clark Elementary, there’s a bully named Larry Dunn. Larry rules over everyone in kindergarten through fourth grade, but he’s not the most powerful student in school—that would be Byron and his friend Buphead, both of whom are in sixth grade and are the oldest kids in school, since they (like Larry Dunn) had to repeat some grades. Larry Dunn picks on Kenny, but not as much as he probably would if Kenny weren’t related to Byron. For example, Kenny once found a dollar and foolishly showed it to Larry Dunn. Instead of just taking the whole dollar, though, Larry Dunn went to the school’s store, got change, and only kept 50 cents. Kenny knows Larry would’ve kept the whole dollar if he weren’t afraid of Byron.
Although Byron bullies Kenny at home and frequently gives him a hard time, his presence in school also provides Kenny with a small amount of protection. Even Larry Dunn—the school bully—doesn’t want to mess with Kenny too much, since he knows that Byron might take revenge if he did. There are some benefits, then, to having a mean older brother, though it’s worth pointing out that Kenny’s relation to Byron doesn’t completely protect him from bullies, suggesting that Byron doesn’t actually care that much about defending his little brother.
Themes
There are a couple things that attract negative attention to Kenny. For instance, there’s the fact that he loves to read. Once teachers find out how good he is at reading, they start bringing him around to other classes and having him show off his talent. He loves this until one day he finds himself in Byron and Buphead’s class. Byron’s scary teacher encourages Kenny to read Langston Hughes. He also tells the class that, as young Black people in the United States, they will experience many challenges. The ability to read well, he says, is a vital skill for any Black person making their way through the “hostile” environment of a racist country.
Again, the adults in Kenny and Byron’s life acknowledge the challenges that Black people face in the United States—something that Kenny and Byron themselves don’t necessarily seem to think about very much, perhaps because they’re still young and living in a predominantly Black community, where they don’t come into contact with white people very often. And yet, that doesn’t mean they won’t have to navigate the treacherous racism running rampant throughout the country in the 1960s. Byron’s teacher therefore tries to prepare his students to succeed in a challenging world, believing that things like literacy and academic success will help young Black people pursue important opportunities.
Themes
Byron’s teacher tells him to stop glaring at Kenny, saying that he might learn a thing or two from his younger brother. Kenny is sure Byron will beat him up later for showing off, but he’s surprised to find that Byron seems somewhat proud of him. Byron even tells Buphead to leave his brother alone and jokes that, if he were in Kenny’s position, he’d charge the teachers money to parade him around to read in different classes. Seeing that Byron isn’t going to bully Kenny for being smart, nobody else gives him a hard time for it, either.
There’s no doubt that Byron often teases Kenny and mistreats him, but that’s not what happens after Kenny reads to his class. To the contrary, Byron takes pride in his younger brother’s intelligence, indicating that—although he doesn’t always let it show—he does love Kenny and wants him to succeed.
Themes
However, many students at Clark Elementary do make fun of Kenny for having a lazy eye. Kenny is very self-conscious about his inability to make both his eyes look in the same direction, but Byron gives him some advice. He tells Kenny that, if he doesn’t want people to focus on his lazy eye, he should just stand so that people can only see one side of his face. Kenny thinks this is pretty good advice, but he still gets picked on. He’s nervous that Byron will one day graduate from Clark Elementary and no longer be there to protect him. He knows, after all, what it’s like not to have his brother to watch over him, since Byron often skips school. Just before getting on the bus in the morning, he’ll frequently sneak away.
Again, it becomes clear that Byron really does care about Kenny, as evidenced by the fact that he wants to make him feel better about himself. He knows Kenny is self-conscious, so he tries to help him stop worrying quite so much about whether or not people are thinking about his lazy eye. Of course, it might be more helpful if Byron encouraged Kenny to simply accept his lazy eye instead of trying to hide it, but Byron’s advice still helps Kenny and shows him that his older brother cares about how he feels.
Themes
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After Byron sneaks away from the bus one day, Kenny gets on and rides in the front seat—that’s where it’s safest when Byron’s not there, since the driver can protect him from bullies. Suddenly, the driver stops because two students are running for the bus. When the two boys get on, Kenny sees that they’re brothers. They’re new at Clark. The older one grins, looks at everyone, and says “Hiya, y’all!” Everyone bursts out laughing at him, and Larry Dunn chucks an apple at him. The driver intervenes and tells the older boy to sit next to Kenny. Kenny is elated because he thinks the arrival of this new boy will mean that people no longer pick on him, since they’ll be focused on making fun of the new kid, whose name is Rufus.
Although Kenny is kindhearted, he can’t help but relish the idea of everyone making fun of Rufus instead of him. More than anything, his momentary, mean-spirited wish simply demonstrates how bad it feels to get picked on—so bad, it seems, that Kenny is willing to think unkind thoughts about Rufus even though he’s normally a compassionate person who doesn’t wish harm on anyone.
Themes
