52 pages • 1 hour read
Carl DeukerRunner
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2005A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Escape from Hopelessness
The book’s title suggests the main theme. Chance is a runner, but he doesn’t run for his high school track team, and the story doesn’t center on running as a sport. Chance likes to run, and it helps him clear his mind. Thus, running becomes a way for Chance to escape. His situation isn’t rosy. He lives with his dad in a “crummy” boat, and aside from running, he lacks identifiable interests. Chance doesn’t have goals or something to look forward to. His main concern is making time go quickly. He watches “stupid” TV shows and “unfunny” movies and counts the hours before he can “flick off the lights and call it a day” (33). He doesn’t like school, and he doesn’t try hard, but he goes to school because cutting class would only make his days longer. Chance craves guidance and order, which is why he joins the Army. By enlisting, he escapes his hopeless situation. He can get away from his dad and the boat. Chance explains,
All the other years I’d lived on the boat, I’d hated seeing the activity at the start of boating season. Knowing that other people were headed off to other places had made me feel nailed to the pier. But now, I felt what they felt. Because I was going, too. As soon as school ended, I was going (163).
Running symbolizes hope. It’s mobility, and Chance wants freedom. He doesn’t want to be “nailed” to Pier B: He wants to be someplace else—away from his dispiriting dad and their stagnant life. The tragic irony is that Chance’s illicit gig gives him—and his dad—an escape from hopelessness. As Tiny Dancer explodes, Chance must go somewhere else—his home is gone. Since his dad transforms from a symbol of hopelessness to a hero, his dad isn’t the burden he once was. Now, his dad represents hope, meaning, and a greater purpose.
As Chance chooses not to live with Melissa, escape from hopelessness also means getting away from other people’s expectations. Chance says, “If I moved into Melissa’s house, their life would become my life” (215). Chance has to pursue his truth and not get stuck in other people’s worlds, regardless of their economic status. Hope is elusive, and Chance doesn’t have a specific goal because hope is personal, and it’s not always easy to articulate intimate feelings. Merging the personal and the elusive, Chance declares, “One thing I’m sure of—I am going somewhere someday. I’m going for myself, and I’m going for my dad, too” (216).
The Intense Pressure of Money
Money shapes the narrative, and it dominates Chance’s life. He admits, “Sometimes all I could think about was money. I’d look around and it seemed like every kid but me had it. [...] How could money be so easy to get for some people and so hard for others?” (44). When the “fat guy” offers Chance a way to earn “easy money,” he accepts it, not so he can buy himself fancy clothes and a nice car but to pay for basic things like the moorage fee and food. The intense pressure of money pushes Chance into a fraught situation. People need money to live—and to get it, they’ll do risky things. Chance smuggles drugs and becomes part of a terrorist plot due to money—it’s the source of Chance’s woes.
The presence of money doesn’t negate the pressure. Once Chance makes money, it becomes hard for him to quit. He tells the “fat guy” he’s quitting, but it doesn’t appear as though the people will let him leave. The death of the “fat guy” and the speeding cars suggest they would have killed Chance before letting him quit.
People with money also face pressure in the form of expectations. Melissa has money, and she worries about getting into Stanford. She creates the newspaper, hoping it will help her get into Stanford. Chance sees how money doesn’t make the intense pressure of money vanish, so he chooses not to live with Melissa’s family and let them financially support him. The story ends with Chance resisting the intense pressure of money. He unhooks his life from money, declaring, “I’m going for myself, and I’m going for my dad, too” (216). The declaration doesn’t mean that Chance doesn’t need money, but it indicates he won’t let money control him.
The theme creates a binary where rich people receive safety and people without much money battle precarity. Melissa adds to the binary when she says her brothers might be in Afghanistan or Iraq (instead of at Yale) if her family was “poor.” Chance perpetuates the binary when he states, “It isn’t rich kids getting killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, is it? It’s not government of the people. It’s government of the rich people. The poor get screwed over from the day they’re born to the day they die” (50). Chance’s narrative undercuts the binary. He doesn’t have to enlist in the Army and potentially fight in the Middle East. He’s not automatically “screwed”—he could have lived with Melissa’s family and had an affluent life. Thus, people from lower economic classes have agency and choices—they’re not inevitable victims or charity cases.
Paranoia and the Loss of Security
The September 11 context highlights the suspicious, dangerous world. The attacks revealed that America was a vulnerable country and that the government couldn’t always protect its citizens from deadly, destructive threats. Natasha notes the heightened awareness of precarity when she summarizes a conversation between her dad and an FBI agent, “Terrorists could sail in and blow up whatever they wanted” (95). The threat of terrorism makes people suspicious. The country is vulnerable, and people worry about future attacks. In Arnold’s class, the students discuss the color-coded terror alert system, which the Bush administration created to keep people updated on the current terror risk. Chance’s dad thinks, “That color stuff is a load of crap” (121). His reaction suggests he already knew the world was a mistrustful, hateful place. He fought in the First Gulf War—he was in a life-or-death situation a decade before September 11. Nevertheless, the color system and the War on Terror narrative turn September 11 into an epiphanic event, with people realizing they’re not as secure as they presumed.
Some of the characters don’t view the world as dangerous or suspicious. Heather says, “I’m glad nothing ever happens here. I don’t want anything bad to happen” (118). Heather comes across as ignorant and unthinking: She should understand why the world is hostile. The world has always been volatile, and people have been trying to launch terrorist attacks in the United States for years. In 1993, terrorists tried to bomb the World Trade Center. In 2000, during Bill Clinton’s presidency, al-Qaida bombed the Navy ship USS Cole, killing 17 sailors. However, September 11 heightened the awareness of danger because it was the first large-scale attack on US soil. The scope of the attack—with almost 3,000 killed—and the methods—hijacking airplanes simultaneously from different airports—raised the stakes and the level of fear.
Chance witnesses the general danger and suspicion of the September 11 landscape, and he personally experiences the danger and suspicion as he becomes a part of a terrorist plot. Though he doesn’t know he’s helping terrorists, he feels like a terrorist. He turns Melissa into an antagonist. Using War on Terror diction, he tells her, “I just don’t like being spied on” (89). Chance is also anxious, admitting, “Every time I saw a cop car in the marina parking lot or heard a siren in the distance, I thought the police were coming after me” (134). Chance feels like a suspicious person in a dangerous world. The dramatic irony is that he’s doing something suspicious and dangerous—the authorities should focus on him.
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