The Boy at the Back of the Class

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of bullying, death, loss, and grief.

The empty chair in Mrs. Khan’s classroom is a symbol of newness and change. The chair opens up when Alexa’s classmate Dena moves away. Dena’s absence thus creates a disturbance to the otherwise predictable classroom setting, but once Dena is gone, almost no one pays attention to the chair anymore. Their failure to notice the chair suggests that the children aren’t anticipating newness or change.

However, three weeks into the semester, something surprising happens that “ma[kes] everyone so curious,” and it all “be[gins] with the empty chair” (7). The vacant chair creates the opportunity for something new to happen to Alexa and her classmates, even when they’re not aware of it. Ahmet’s arrival is the event that takes the class by surprise and changes how they see the world. Once he joins their class, the students begin to ask new questions, encounter new conflicts, and seek out forms of connection.

Alexa’s dad’s record player is a symbol of Alexa’s loss and her ongoing connection with her father. When Alexa’s dad died, Alexa’s mom wanted to get rid of the record player, but her brother Lenny urged her to give it to