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Symbols & Motifs
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness and death.
Football
Football is a symbol of How Legacy Shapes Identity. At Marcus’s last school, he played on the junior varsity team, where he set county records for his throws but shied away from situations in which he might get tackled. With a fresh start, Marcus yearns to prove himself, particularly because the team at his new school far outshines his old team. In the early chapters, football is both Marcus’s greatest love and his greatest fear. While he’s good at throwing and has the speed to make downs, he chokes when he feels physically threatened by offensive players. Once Marcus starts practicing with Charlie and learning how to take hits, football emerges as a marker by which Marcus can track his personal growth. As Marcus learns to play offensively, he also begins taking on greater responsibility on his team. As he discovers his capacity to handle responsibility, he gains confidence off the field as well. Marcus’s success getting Charlie to the induction ceremony represents how Marcus puts his newfound confidence to the test and isn’t afraid to back down until he achieves his goal. More broadly, Marcus’s improvement at football shows the importance of sports in the formation of his identity, both as a quarterback and as a person capable of making his own decisions.
Football is both a positive and negative influence in Charlie’s character arc. When Charlie was Marcus’s age, football was his life, and Charlie’s dedication to the game allowed him to play at the college and professional levels, opening doors for him. As a professional linebacker, Charlie’s skills lay in offense, and he built his career around hard tackles that stopped his opponents in their tracks. In the present-day of the story, Charlie retains the skill set he had as a young athlete, showing how important those years still are to who he is. Charlie’s decision to go after the hawk at the football game in Chapter 27 is the ultimate demonstration of how football both helps and hinders him, grounding him in a clear identity but keeping him trapped in the past.
Three Alarm Park
Three Alarm Park symbolizes Marcus’s relationship with Charlie and forms the center of each character’s experience of life in the town. The park is significant as the place where Marcus first meets Charlie, and this significance deepens when Marcus goes to the park on the day of Charlie’s funeral. This symmetry gives the meetings at the park throughout the book meaning as a place of fun (when Marcus and Charlie practice tackles), hardship (such as when the car window is broken in Chapter 1), and strife (as when Marcus finds Charlie there in the middle of the night). Three Alarm Park also symbolizes the distinct but overlapping worlds Marcus and Charlie live in. The park is the place where Marcus’s feud with the exterminator begins, making it a symbol of Marcus’s need to protect Charlie while also showing Marcus that he can’t protect others at the expense of himself. Similarly, Three Alarm Park is where Charlie and young McTavish hatched their plans to torment the man who used to own the exterminator’s shop, and in this way, the park represents Charlie’s understanding of his 16-year-old world, as well as how he uses that understanding to move about in the present day.
The Vespa
The Vespa represents Marcus’s journey toward finding what’s important to him and forging his own identity. The scooter was a gift from Marcus’s dad and was meant as a bribe so Marcus would choose his dad over his mom. Marcus’s refusal to stay with his dad highlights his sense of loyalty toward those who treat him well and his ability to make his own choices. This explains Marcus’s loyalty to Charlie, even as he recognizes that some of Charlie’s choices (such as the prank on the exterminator) are irresponsible. Once Marcus learns the truth about Charlie’s condition, his sense of loyalty becomes a liability as Marcus insists on keeping the CTE a secret, even though doing so risks real trouble for himself and his mom. In addition to loyalty, the Vespa also represents Marcus’s difficulty finding his place among the football team. Initially, Alyssa compares Marcus’s Vespa unfavorably to Troy’s sports car. This symbolizes how Marcus is viewed as second to Troy for most of the book, as well as how Marcus’s feud with Troy is central to both boys’ relationships with Charlie. At the end of the story when Marcus becomes starting quarterback for the team, he still drives the Vespa, and the existence of these two things alongside one another shows that Marcus doesn’t have to give up his old identity (the Vespa) to become someone new (quarterback).
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