77 pages • 2 hours read
Kwame AlexanderRebound
Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Middle Grade | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Basketball
Alexander uses basketball to symbolize the hard work, determination, and self-confidence it takes to navigate life’s joys and hardships. Charlie avoids basketball after his father dies; the game is a source of pain because he used to play with his father. However, when he visits his father’s family in Washington, DC, Charlie discovers his passion for the sport, Finding Purpose in Hard Work and striving for athletic excellence.
As Charlie gains competence and confidence, Alexander extends the basketball symbol to represent a broader approach to life. Charlie’s grandfather, Percy, often uses basketball analogies to help Charlie understand the importance of hard work and agency: “[Y]ou have one job to do. Just one […] To be on the team. To get in the game when the coach calls on you […]This is the first quarter. We’re just getting started” (166). Here, Alexander uses a basketball team to represent a family; the role of the individual is to help their “teammates” recover from loss or make it through hardship. Telling Charlie that this is the “first quarter” reminds him that the “game” of life is long and that he will have many opportunities if he can rely on his team for support. Basketball therefore also suggests The Impact of Role Models in Adolescence, as one’s “team” influences the course of one’s life.
One particular feature of basketball that Alexander singles out is the rebound, which the novel uses to illustrate one’s ability to come back from hardships in life. In basketball, a rebound happens when someone gains control of the ball after a missed shot. Charlie learns to “rebound” from both his father’s death and his own mistakes through hard work and his relationships with others, as when Charlie goes to jail and commits to “listen[ing] to all the coaches in [his] life” and “do[ing] better” (369).
Black Hole
The primary conflict in the text is Charlie’s grief over the death of his father. Black holes represent this grief, as well as the death’s impact on the family and community at large, illustrating How Grief Manifests in Different Individuals.
In the section titled “Black Hole,” Charlie describes his father as “a star/ in [his] neighborhood,” later stating that “[his] star exploded / and everything / froze” (17). A black hole is a celestial occurrence that happens when a star dies, creating a gravitational force that pulls in all matter around it. Scientists know little about what occurs inside of black holes; they can only observe the destruction that results from them. Alexander uses this to symbolize the experience of losing a loved one—its far-reaching effects and the sense of emptiness that grief can cause. After Joshua’s death, Charlie’s life metaphorically begins to implode through the disintegration of his relationship with his mother and through his increasingly dangerous choices. It is only when Charlie sees his grandparents’ healthier methods for processing grief that he begins to regain a sense of control in his own life, leaving the symbolic “black hole” and starting a path toward healing.
The black hole metaphor also suggests the way death can impact an entire family or community. The estrangement between Charlie and his mother is an example, as it results not only from Charlie’s behavior but from her own grief—specifically, her efforts to bottle up her feelings. Charlie implies that the loss also reverberates throughout his neighborhood, as it deprives Joshua’s students (adolescent and adult) of a committed teacher.
Superheroes
Alexander uses an extended superhero motif to depict how individual can own their power and choices in the face of hardship. Drawing on superheroes’ popularity in the 1980s, the novel shows Charlie using comic books to escape his grief, imaginatively identifying with heroes who have superhuman abilities to fight evil. Charlie reveals his desire to regain control of his life when he says he’d like to be a superhero:
so [he] could fight back
against all the
doom
and the gloom
that’s trying
to destroy
[him] (250).
Through comic-style illustrations, Charlie also imagines himself with large muscles and a cape, daydreaming about physical excellence in basketball. These early references to superheroes underscore how far Charlie is from healing. Ironically, Charlie’s fantasies of superhero power help him avoid taking charge of his life, as he “escapes” interactions with his friends and family and broader engagement with the world.
The significance of superheroes evolves over the course of the narrative. For example, Percy’s nickname is “Iron Man”—an allusion to the superhero who first emerged in the Marvel Universe in 1963. Alexander uses Percy as a “real” superhero in Charlie’s life; he serves as a positive masculine role model in his strength, dedication to his family, and complex emotional life. “Iron Man” also encourages Charlie to work hard, demonstrating how doing so can provide purpose. As Charlie regains a sense of agency in the wake of his father’s death, he begins to imagine himself as a superhero not by adorning himself with superhuman powers but by emphasizing those he already has.
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