108 pages • 3 hours read
Barbara Haworth-AttardTheories of Relativity
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.
Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
The book opens with first-person, present-tense narration from protagonist Dylan, a homeless teenager who has taken up residence outside an office building. He explains his theory that every fourth person will give him money. It’s November, and the weather is getting colder.
Dylan tests his theory during the lunch rush, asking passersby for change. The first three people ignore him, but the fourth stops and lectures him, saying he should be in school. Dylan notes that these kinds of people usually want confrontation, so he stays silent until the man leaves.
Across the street, Jenna, a homeless teen girl around Dylan’s age, arrives outside the church. While the office building is Dylan’s territory, the church is Jenna’s. Jenna is new to street life. She works for a man named Brendon, whom Dylan calls Vulture. Dylan watches as Vulture aggressively pulls Jenna’s warm clothes off, takes her hair down, and poses her to look more like the Virgin Mary to garner sympathy from the crowd leaving the church. Dylan hates Vulture but admits that he knows how to make money on the streets.
The fourth person returns to Dylan with a sausage roll from a nearby street vendor. This moment is bittersweet for Dylan, who is hungry but knows that no one will give him money if he has food. He reluctantly takes the roll and scarfs it down, watching as people rush past him and avoid eye contact. He sees Vulture swoop in toward Jenna and take money from her basket before leaving. Dylan explains that begging requires a delicate balance: Too much money means people stop giving, and no money means they won’t give at all. When he finishes eating, Dylan realizes the lunch rush is over and he’s missed the opportunity to make money off the people passing by. Still, he feels his theory was validated, as the fourth person did give to him after all.
Chapter 2 Summary
Later, Jenna comes to talk to Dylan. She asks how he did for the day, and he shrugs. Dylan theorizes that shrugging is the best answer to questions, as it will always be interpreted how the asker wants to interpret it.
Jenna spots a police officer and ushers Dylan away from the area, explaining that her parents have probably reported her missing. Dylan grabs his things, and they slip into Mandy’s Donuts, a place where people living on the street can rest without trouble, as long as they occasionally buy something. They get comfortable in a booth, and Jenna buys them drinks and fries with her day’s earnings. Dylan is jealous of the cashier because he’d tried to get a job at Mandy’s but was told he wasn’t clean enough.
When Jenna returns, Dylan asks her why she thinks her parents reported her missing. Jenna says Vulture told her they probably had. This makes sense to Dylan because he knows Vulture will do anything to protect his investments. Vulture regularly takes in new street kids because he knows he can take advantage of them. Dylan learned this from one of Vulture’s workers, Amber, who first took Dylan in and taught him about street life. Jenna says she’s almost 16, and which means she soon won’t have to worry about the police.
Jenna asks Dylan about his life, which catches him off guard. Street kids don’t typically discuss their personal lives. As they eat, he reveals details of his life. He’s had three father figures but never really knew his biological dad. Dylan’s parents met as teenagers, and his biological dad dropped out of school and disappeared shortly after Dylan’s birth. Dylan spent a lot of time with his paternal grandparents on their farm. He was close to his grandfather, but after Dylan’s mom got with her new husband Pete (who fathered Dylan’s younger brother Jordan), Pete and Dylan’s mom prevented Dylan’s grandfather from seeing him. Pete was abusive toward Dylan and Jordan, so Dylan’s mom threw him out. Dylan was also kicked out of the house, but he begged her to let him come home. She declined.
Vulture joins them as Dylan winds down his story. Vulture asks who bought the food and Dylan lies, saying he did, prompting Vulture to invite Dylan to join his crew. It angers Vulture that Dylan won’t join him. Dylan declines the offer. Jenna invites Dylan to a party that night, but Dylan knows better; a night of drugs and drinking would land him in Vulture’s clutches. He declines again.
Chapter 3 Summary
Dylan heads to the library. He plans to wash up in the bathroom sink. To blend in, he grabs the nearest book and heads for the lounge area. There are other “weirdos” there, and Dylan laments that he is one of them. He secures his bag to his ankle. Then, to avoid attention, Dylan skims the book, which is about Albert Einstein and his theories. Noting Einstein’s unusual appearance, Dylan observes that Einstein “would be right at home with the people in this lounge. Maybe they’re all geniuses” (19).
Dylan dozes off but is quickly woken up by the presence of another street kid, Twitch. His mannerisms and inability to sit still convey to Dylan that Twitch is on drugs. Twitch talks loudly, asking Dylan why he always comes to the library. While tossing and twirling Dylan’s book, Twitch invites Dylan to the youth center. Dylan declines. He doesn’t like it there because he feels he’s not like the other kids there. Twitch says the library gives him the creeps, but Dylan doesn’t mind. Twitch throws the book again, and it lands on the ground, catching the attention of the nearby security guard. Annoyed, Dylan realizes he should leave before he gets banned.
Twitch follows Dylan out, asking if Dylan has money. He doesn’t, but he would say no even if he did. Twitch says he knows a guy who will let them stay the night in his apartment and invites Dylan to come with him. Dylan is suspicious, but the idea of a warm place to stay and a shower is too enticing. The guy, a 40-something named Brad, is welcoming. Dylan is still uneasy but quickly becomes comfortable eating biscotti and drinking coffee with Brad and Twitch. Brad and Twitch take some pills, but Dylan declines the offer to partake with them.
Dylan showers and nearly cries from the euphoria of finally feeling clean. When he is done, he returns to the living room to see Twitch and Brad relaxing. It’s the first time he’s seen Twitch sit still. Dylan unrolls his sleeping bag and drifts to sleep, thinking about how he can’t wait for Jenna to see him clean.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
The first three chapters of Theories of Relativity offer a bleak look into the life of a homeless teenager. Dylan’s first-person voice captures the duality of his youth and his homeless situation, inserting teenage angst and lust between the descriptions of his misfortune.
Hunger is a prevailing theme in these chapters. Just as Dylan is constantly reminded of his need to eat, the reader is also reminded of Dylan’s hunger. His actions and decisions are influenced by his most basic needs: hunger, warmth, and hygiene. Even when it harms his long-term plans, Dylan cannot resist a warm sausage bun when it’s presented to him. In this moment, his need for sustenance outweighs his wisdom that food will prevent him from making money off the lunch rush. Later, despite wanting to seem cool and attractive to Jenna, Dylan covers his fingers in ketchup and desperately licks it off, trying to gain the most sustenance from whatever food he can access. Finally, Dylan sets aside his concerns about Brad to indulge in the biscotti set out for him and Twitch. Though his street smarts and youthful longings are ever present, Dylan repeatedly ignores his concerns and desires when it comes to feeding himself.
The dichotomy between Dylan and Jenna reveals a sharp contrast between life on the streets alone and life under Vulture’s wing. While Dylan knows he doesn’t want to work for Vulture or be indebted to Vulture, it’s still a tempting reality as Vulture offers protection and wisdom about making money on the streets. Under Vulture, Jenna makes significantly more money than Dylan, and she has more opportunities to shower too. Though Jenna has what Dylan wants, Dylan prides himself on his independence. He alludes to the consequences of working for Vulture but hasn’t yet been specific about Vulture’s bad side. Still, both Dylan and Jenna share an underlying fear of Vulture.
The motif of theories is introduced in these chapters. In the book’s first lines, Dylan explains his theory about every fourth person giving to him, and then he tests the theory, finding that the fourth person gives him food. In Chapter 2, he demonstrates his theory on shrugging during his interaction with Jenna. He doesn’t want her pity, nor does he want her envy, so a shrug is the ideal answer to her question about his earnings. In Chapter 3, he compares his theories to those of Einstein, but only in a superficial context, worrying that his own hair will grow long and wild if he continues his life of thinking and theories. Even so, Dylan prefers the company of books and theories to that of the people at the youth center.
Overall, Dylan is characterized as an intelligent teen boy caught in a bad situation that is mostly out of his control. If it were up to him, he’d still be living at home with his mom and brothers, but he’s been forced into this life on the street. He must navigate the turbulent streets at the same time that he navigates all the normal complexities of being a teenager.
