61 pages • 2 hours read
Lois LowryThe Silent Boy
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2003A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
Animals, Innocence, and Human Violence
Animals represent innocence and gentleness throughout the text. We do not see any predatory animals depicted, only sweet and docile farm animals and pets. Adult humans are the perpetrators of violence against the innocent. For example, Jacob’s father butchers some of his farm animals, and Jacob cannot stand to take part: “It troubles my pa that Jacob runs and hides at butchering time. He feels them animals to be his friends. He can’t be there when their time comes, and it angers Pa” (96). The townspeople also commit more abstract acts of violence against the innocent, such as when they describe Jacob in hurtful terms like “imbecile” and use him as a scapegoat, blaming him for the mill fire when he wasn’t even there because they know he cannot defend himself.
Conversely, Jacob is frequently depicted with horses, soothing them and almost seeming to communicate with them. He also has a dog that he raised from a puppy when its own mother couldn’t care for it. His Pup loves him unconditionally and follows him wherever he goes. Katy and Jacob form their friendship when Jacob presents her with a beautiful kitten. Because animals do not speak, we are invited to compare the silent Jacob with these creatures. Rather than assume Jacob is defective because he does not speak, we can instead understand him as we do the innocent animals and view him as a truly innocent being. This also implies that if we reserve judgment of Jacob, as the animals do, then we can communicate with and understand him. Katy achieves this precisely because she is kind, compassionate, and empathetic, not prone to judgment or hostility like the townspeople are.
Traditional Versus Nontraditional Methods of Communication
This novel begs the question, what does it mean to communicate? Katy’s experiences expose the reader to different kinds of communication. She first expresses her frustration at learning to read and feels that she must not be very smart: “Paul said I was the smartest child on the street. (It was not true, because I couldn’t read yet, no matter how I tried.)” (13). Katy spends most of her time trying to decode the words of adults. For example, when she learns that Laura Paisley was born by way of the garden, she is perplexed but can’t break into the adult world of secrets to find out how children are actually born. It isn’t until later, when her father shows her a model of a fetus in a womb, that she finally understands. She often finds the communication of adults around her perplexing, and it is through real-life experiences (usually with her father) that she gleans the meaning she was missing.
As powerful as nonverbal communication can be for Katy and Jacob, the absence of speech is very dangerous for Jacob: “We had never talked. Indeed, I had never heard Jacob speak” (130). He cannot speak to defend himself and is therefore subject to the townspeople’s assumptions and prejudices. He cannot explain to anyone what he is thinking or doing with Nell’s baby, and ends up locked away for life because of this. When he is taken away, Katy worries that he will not get to be with animals or have his dog, and indeed he cannot communicate these interests to anyone at the asylum. The book clearly depicts the importance of verbal communication but asks the reader to acknowledge that human beings can communicate kindly and connect with one another without speech or shared language.
Education, Social Class, and Economic Advancement
Katy’s narrative is largely about education. She learns about the world through real-life experiences while also attending school. She astutely observes that there are marked differences in the lives of those in her community who receive an education and those who do not. She first discusses her love of reading with Peggy, asking why Nell doesn’t join them at the library: “Nellie don’t like to read […] even in school, she never did.’ ‘Your sister Nellie doesn’t like to, and your brother, Jacob, can’t […] isn’t that strange?” (128). Indeed, it is Nell and Jacob who suffer most in this novel, and what Katy is beginning to pick up on is the importance of an education. This later becomes clear to her as she observes her neighbor’s hired girl working: “I wondered if she ever wished she could have stayed in school, studying French and algebra, instead of washing tea towels and scrubbing the kitchen floors for the Stevensons” (72). Katy is privileged enough to pursue an education to the extent of becoming a doctor. Part of her motivation to do so clearly stems from her early observations of young girls who can’t complete their educations. Similarly, it is this belief in the power of a good education that motivates the Bishops to push Paul toward a particular school and career path. His parents understand what Katy is beginning to grasp, that without the right educational foundation, one’s choices in life are very limited. Furthermore, it is Katy and the Bishops’ wealth and social status that allow them to hold such aspirations. During this historical period there were very few social services available to the poor, so opportunities for higher education were available only to a few. We can see how the cycle of poverty and lack of education plays out in the Stoltz family, where the only opportunity for economic advancement comes from manual labor. In contrast, the highly educated Bishops are the proud owners of every new and exciting invention that comes onto the market. When their oldest son gets into trouble, they can afford special services (a boarding school) to help him, meanwhile Nell and Jacob from the poorer Stoltz family are ostracized and disappear from society.
Related Titles
By Lois Lowry
