Family and Personal Relationships

Family and relationships are strong themes in this novel. Bud's mother is his closest ally at the beginning of the novel, yet by the time he has to live at the orphanage, his friend Bugs becomes the only family he has. The bully figure, Billy Burns, serves as a catalyst for Bud to find his family again after realizing that substitute families, such as the Amoses, will not be successful in helping him to be happy.

Bud often seems to befriend females easily, as they remind him of his mother. The librarian and Miss Thomas are some of the strongest allies Bud has in his development into a young man. He can be vulnerable with these ladies enough to share his hunger, his worries, and his emotions when necessary. They provide a constant mothering to him after his own mother is gone from the picture...