Theories of Relativity

“My fingers search the cardboard container, but I’ve finished the fries. I squirt ketchup over my fingers and lick it off. I’m never full. I think it was one of the reasons I had to leave—or, rather, why my mother kicked me out. Jenna’s a runaway, but I’m a throwaway. Tossed out. Like garbage.”

This quote shows Dylan’s desperate hunger after living on the streets for several weeks. He hasn’t experienced what it’s like to have a full stomach in a long time and licks ketchup off his fingers for just a little more sustenance. The end of this quote also reveals what Dylan believes about himself because of the way his mother discarded him.

“I’ve never expended so much energy protecting a single article as I do for this backpack, but everything I own is inside: my clothes, my music, a sliver of soap, a razor, a ratty toothbrush, photographs. I live in constant fear of losing me.”

Dylan explains the importance of his backpack. Through this list and what Dylan says about it, it’s clear that Dylan has attached his identity to the backpack, and he worries that losing it would be like losing the last bits of himself that he has left.

“It’s like a field trip. We sit at the back of the bus. Jenna pokes me with her finger every time I make her laugh and I love it. The bus lurches and she falls against me, soft and warm. She squeals and clutches my arm close to her chest, and my brain reels.”

This quote captures the youth that Jenna and Dylan still experience. It can be easy to forget how young these characters given the novel’s heavy themes and their dire circumstances, but in this moment, Dylan and Jenna revert to the kids they used to be.

“I told Mom it wasn’t good for Jordan or Micha to be the new kid all the time. Jordan ‘acted out,’ as one principal put it, and Micha had his nightmares. She told me to shut up. Couldn’t I see she was making a new start and it would be different this time? She’d get a job, there would be food on the table, clothes on our backs. Ten months later, we’d move again.”

This quote gives the reader an idea of what Dylan’s childhood was like. The cycle of his mother’s marriages, new apartments, and broken promises contributes to the instability that Dylan and his brothers have experienced throughout their lives.

“I have a theory about social workers. They’re needy. They need to think they’re bettering mankind. But they’re really trying to make themselves feel good.”

Dylan presents his theory that social workers are not actually out to help others but simply wish to help themselves feel better. This explains his mistrust of social programs and the people who push them and shows why Dylan rejects help from organizations that employ social workers.

“Einstein had theories about time, but I doubt he ever knew how it felt to have every day run into the next until they meld together.”

This quote reveals three things about Dylan: He regards Einstein highly and thinks of him often; he considers theories to be important; and he is wearing thin due to his current life on the street. With the days melding together, Dylan has little to look forward to and little to look back on. He feels trapped in this cycle of desolation.

“You get a street name and it means you belong here. They’re your family and you’re one of them. I’m not one of them and I do not want a nickname that says I am.”

Dylan rejects one of the common aspects of street life for kids. He already worries about losing himself to the streets and maintains his own name as a hard boundary, deciding that he won’t be associated with that life.

“It was Twitch who insisted we go to the center today. I’m so stupid. There are no real friends on the street. You’ve got to look out for yourself. That’s not a theory. It’s just the way it is.”

After his first encounter with Lurch, Dylan realizes that Twitch intentionally timed their visit to the youth center to coincide with Lurch’s visit. Dylan previously trusted Twitch but now decides that he can’t trust anyone on the streets. This decision to not trust anyone or anything affects Dylan’s choices through the rest of the novel.

“As I follow her down the aisle, I draw in one last breath of God’s smell and wish I could come back. It wouldn’t matter whether I believed in him or not. The stained-glass windows could splash red and blue over me, I could slide my butt over polished pews, study the paintings on the walls and ceilings and admire the statues, and maybe—belong.”

This vulnerable quote from Dylan reveals his deep yearning to belong to something greater. He’s never felt the stability of a family or community because of his upbringing. Though he doesn’t believe in God, he still wishes to feel the closeness that a church provides its members.

“It’s strange how, when I’m out on the street and it’s freezing, time ticks with excruciating slowness, but when I want it to move slower, it speeds up. Do you have a mathematical formula for that anomaly, Einstein?”

Dylan regularly wonders about Einstein, speaking to him in his thoughts. Dylan’s attachment to Einstein reveals his lack of role models. He seeks Einstein’s acceptance and wisdom because he’s never known someone to give him those things.

“She comes up close and pokes a finger into my chest. ‘You wait. Your turn will come. You haven’t been out here long enough. It’ll get to you, and you’ll find yourself doing anything you can to make it go away.’ She pushes her face into mine. ‘It is getting to you, isn’t it?’”

Amber foreshadows Dylan’s descent into the dangers of street life. She knows no one can maintain a life free from addiction and abuse while out on the streets because of her own experiences. Though she is accusatory in this quote, this expression of emotion reveals her fears for Dylan’s well-being.

“I already gave one up. A boy. Children’s Services made me. But I’m not letting them get their fucking hands on this one. That’s why I’m staying right here on the street until this one’s born. Once I have the baby, I’ll be able to get some government money, get a place of my own. It’ll be someone for me to love and someone to love me.”

Amber refers to her unborn child in this quote. She sees her potential baby not as a further detriment to her situation but as a hope for a better life, which shows that Amber has not yet given up on saving herself from the streets. Her remark about having someone to love her reveals that she still desperately yearns for love.

“My mother had a few things to say about him: useless bum, loser. She’d scream at me that I was just like him. But I didn’t know if she meant I looked like him, or that I was a useless bum.”

Before even meeting him, Dylan is introduced to the idea that he is a lot like his father. This quote foreshadows Phil’s personality and highlights Dylan’s mom’s cruel treatment of Dylan by comparing him to Phil.

“Ainsley shook her head. ‘She shows all the signs of an abuse victim. You can’t help her, Dylan, not until she wants to be helped. In the meantime, though, you could get yourself hurt. By both Jenna and Brendan.’”

This quote contributes to the overall theme of accepting help. Ainsley is worried about Jenna but knows Jenna won’t be helped until she wants to be helped. This quote also shows Ainsley’s concern for the street kids and her wisdom regarding the issues they face.

“I want to tell Dan who I am. I want my mother to tell Dan who I am. I want him out of my house and me back. But there’s food on Micha’s plate, more in the fridge, a new snowsuit, Jordan following orders, coats hung on hooks. Micha watches me anxiously. He wants to like Dan, but he’s waiting to see if I like Dan before he’ll allow himself to.”

Dylan yearns to be accepted back into his family. He’s seen all the positive things that Dan has brought to his mom and brothers and wishes he could be part of it. He knows, however, that revealing himself might mess things up for everyone, and so he makes the difficult decision to keep quiet.

“Picking my way over bodies and garbage, I skirt the holes in the floor and hug the wall as I go down the stairs. Through the broken door and the hole in the fence. The stink of the place clings to my clothes and I recognize it now. Desolation.”

This quote encompasses the mood of the factory setting and establishes that good things do not happen here. It’s perhaps the darkest, most desolate place in the novel. While Dylan has no plans to return after a single night spent there, the factory will play host to Dylan’s lowest points, as it is where he winds up addicted to pills after the beating.

“The way I see it, their problems should be straightened out long before they get to this point. To being on the street, to being high all the time, abused. If we could get to the problems earlier, help families sooner, we might stop this.”

Ainsley explains why she is becoming a social worker. This quote covers many of the issues that street kids face and shows Ainsley’s knowledge of the problems that cause teens to become homeless. In offering a perspective on social workers that contrasts with Dylan’s bleaker point of view, it also provides a thread of hope that Dylan’s situation may improve.

“What’s shoved into my head is that it’s unfair. Grossly unfair. The huge cathedral of goodwill, riches, Christmas joy and peace, and Jenna at the gate, begging. In that eerie otherworld of enlightenment, I travel through past ages and see ragged, hungry people sitting at the gates of cathedrals all over the world. It’s been like this forever. It will always be like this. My shoulders droop beneath the weight of my thoughts.”

Dylan is considering the hypocrisy of the church. He realizes that the church values good will and charity but not enough to help the beggars at the gates. This quote reveals Dylan’s thoughts on religion, his knowledge of the church’s history, and his distrust in social institutions that purport to help the poor.

“Was he always this small? I know people shrink when they’re old, but hell, he’s barely a crease in the sheets! Maybe he was just big to a little kid. Maybe I needed him to be big. I still need him to be big. But he isn’t.”

Dylan looks upon his dying grandfather’s small form beneath the sheets. Dylan has fond memories of his grandfather, and seeing him in this deteriorated condition is unbelievable to Dylan. Dylan’s acknowledgement that he needed, and still needs, his grandfather to be big shows his longing for a role model and father figure.

“The reality is, the pills do stop the pain, but only for a while, and that while is becoming shorter and shorter before the hurting comes back, along with black despair that only Jenna and her magic tablets can take away.”

This quote is a direct result of Dylan’s high brain. He knows the pills aren’t working as much anymore, but he still needs them. He’s become addicted at this point, and he sees Jenna’s provision of the pills as magic.

“A kid who was smart and had potential could make it, given half a chance. A kid like you. I can help you, Dylan. Ainsley, Children’s Services, they can all help you if you’ll let them, but ultimately, that is your decision. I can’t make it for you. You’re hurting now, physically and emotionally, but think about what I said.”

This quote plays into the theme of choosing to accept help. Though Glen knows Dylan is capable of escaping his circumstances, he isn’t sure Dylan will without aid. Glen urges Dylan to make the right choices in this quote, reassuring Dylan that the help available to him can change his situation.

“‘Why are you so wrapped up in theories?’ Einstein asks. That stumps me for a moment. ‘I guess because when I have a theory, it means I have everything figured out. I have everything under control.’”

This idea explains Dylan’s attachment to his theories and plays into a larger theme of theories giving Dylan control. Dylan’s introspective conversation with Einstein gives him the insight he needs to understand himself on this level and figure out why theories are so important to him.

“But maybe what’s important is not that I matter to them, but that they matter to me. And mostly that I matter to me.”

Dylan comes to realize that it’s not important who he matters to. It’s important that he matters to himself. He also acknowledges that his brothers matter to him, and that’s a good enough reason for him to fight for himself. Dylan knows he cannot contribute to his brothers’ lives if he doesn’t keep himself around for them.