Previous
Chapter 5
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
One evening, Wilona asks Byron to run to the grocery store to pick up a few things. When he asks for money, she instructs him to tell the grocer that he wants to “sign” for the food, explaining that they’ve already made an arrangement to pay for the groceries later on. Byron is distraught because he thinks his mother is saying that the family is on welfare—something he thinks is extremely shameful. He says he won’t eat any welfare food, which enrages his mother. She tells him that he has eaten welfare food in the past and that he’s not too good for it. Unconvinced, Byron goes to the grocery store with Kenny.
Byron’s negative reaction to the idea of his family using government assistance to feed itself suggests that he thinks wealth says something important about people. In other words, he thinks that people who don’t have a lot of money are inferior to people who do—a classist, elitist idea that Wilona challenges by informing him that he has eaten welfare food in the past without even knowing it. Her comment urges her son to see beyond his shallow, superficial ideas about money.
Themes
Byron makes Kenny sign for the food at the store, so Kenny asks the grocer to put his name on the “welfare list.” The grocer laughs and says that the list isn’t a “welfare list,” it just indicates that the Watsons are going to pay once a week instead of every time they go to the store. Byron is overjoyed when he learns that the family isn’t on welfare. He even puts his arm around Kenny on the walk back home. But Kenny ruins his mood by asking which of their family meals their mother was talking about when she said they’d had welfare food before. Byron takes his arm away and talks disparagingly about big blocks of cheese and large containers of powdered milk that their father sometimes brings home.
Despite Wilona’s attempt to show Byron that it’s ridiculous to think that people on welfare are somehow inferior to rich people, Byron clearly still resents the idea that his family has used governmental assistance to feed itself in the past. Kenny, on the other hand, doesn’t seem that perturbed, which isn’t that surprising—after all, he frequently lends Rufus things to help him get by, and he does so without judging Rufus for not having money. In turn, it becomes clear that Kenny sees no shame in the idea of people accepting assistance when they need it.
Themes
A week later, Kenny finds Byron behind the grocery store. He’s gorging himself on Swedish creme cookies and an apple. He offers Kenny a cookie, which Kenny finds suspicious until he realizes that Byron has already eaten a bag and a half of Swedish cremes. The apple is from an overhanging tree. Byron grabs a Swedish creme, sees a bird sitting on a nearby telephone wire, and flings the cookie at it. He misses. But he keeps trying. Eventually, one of the cookies strikes the bird and sends it to the ground. Byron runs to it while Kenny yells about how impressive it is to actually hit a bird, but then Byron looks up with a terrible expression on his face and vomits in the snow.
Having discovered that he can tell the grocer that his family will pay for food later in the week, Byron has clearly taken advantage of the system by buying huge bags of cookies—purchases his parents would never allow if they knew about them. What’s ironic, of course, is that he was so upset by the idea of his family struggling financially, but now he takes advantage of a system that was clearly devised to relieve some of their financial burden. After all, getting an advance from the grocery store is a sign that Wilona and Daniel need a little financial help, but Byron has no problem exploiting this arrangement to his own benefit—despite the fact that it will only push his family that much closer to actually needing welfare.
Themes
Kenny puts his hand on Byron’s shoulder in sympathy, but Byron wheels around and tells him to go away. He punches Kenny and claims that he’s only sick because he ate too many apples. Kenny runs away as his brother pelts him with apples, and all the while he thinks about how mean and terrible Byron can be sometimes. Later that day, though, he goes back to look at the dead bird, but it’s gone. There’s a small grave where it landed, and Kenny realizes that Byron gave the bird a funeral. He feels confused, wishing he were as smart as everyone thinks he is—maybe then he'd be able to figure out what’s going on with his brother.
Byron clearly feels bad about killing the bird, but he doesn’t want to show his emotional vulnerability to his little brother. Consequently, he acts mean so that Kenny will go away—a confusing turn of events that makes it hard for Kenny to understand what, exactly, is happening inside his brother’s head. Suffice it to say, what’s happening is that Byron wants to look like a cool, apathetic teenager when, in reality, he’s a caring and sensitive soul deep down.
Themes
Get the entire The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 LitChart as a printable PDF.
