Miracle's Boys

“‘Later, Milagros killer.’

‘Oh shoot.’ Aaron laughed. ‘That’s cold, man.’

‘It’s true,’ Charlie said.”

Charlie holding Lafayette responsible for their mother’s death is central to the novel’s conflict. Here, Charlie calls Lafayette a “Milagros killer” in a joking manner, but Lafayette is certain that Charlie is sincere in this harsh accusation, and a part of him believes that he deserves this Guilt and Blame. For Lafayette, this is further evidence of Charlie’s newly acquired meanness and the presence of “Newcharlie.”

“My great-aunt Cecile’s all the time saying dead don’t have to mean dead and gone, and I like to believe that.”

Lafayette not only clings to memories of his mother, but he also talks with her daily, imagining that she is present, which he learned in part from his great-aunt Cecile. This appears to be an effective way of coping with his grief, as he actively works through his sadness over her death.

“‘Not like watching a video’s going to teach me how to hold up a candy store.’

‘Hey, we don’t need to talk about that, all right?’

I nodded. Our house was full of stuff we didn’t need to talk about.”

Though Ty’ree does not want to address the crime that Charlie committed, avoiding it appears unhealthy for Lafayette. It is not until Lafayette is able to talk to Charlie and learn of Charlie’s motivation for robbing the store that Lafayette is able to reconnect with Charlie. This quote suggests Ty’ree has enforced a similar avoidant rule regarding the death of their mother, which counters the advice of both great-aunt Cecile and Dr. Vernon. When the brothers learn to talk more, they begin to heal.

“Charlie snatched his hand away from mine and glared at me. ‘How come you ain’t save her, huh?’ he said. ‘If I were here, I would’ve saved her.’”

Charlie is frustrated that nothing could have been done to save his mother from dying. This frustration manifests itself in placing the blame for her death on Lafayette. Charlie’s assertion that he would have been able to save her comes across as foolish and arrogant, but later Ty’ree theorizes that, in truth, it is the lack of control of life’s circumstances that frustrates Charlie, as well as The Grieving Process.

“Ty’ree had left up the flowered curtains Mama’d bought downtown, and for some reason this was sadder than anything to me. It seemed wrong—a big, blue-plaid boy comforter on the bed and Mama’s lady curtains at the window. I went over and rubbed the curtains against my face.

‘This is all, huh, T?’ I whispered. ‘This is all we got left of Mama.’

Ty’ree shook his head. ‘Nah, Lafayette,’ he said. ‘That ain’t all.’”

The lack of physical reminders of their mother via her possessions bothers Lafayette. It underscores the permanence of their mother’s death and the way in which Ty’ree avoids directly speaking of her death. The contrast of flowered curtains and “blue-plaid boy comforter” represents the transition the brothers are in as Ty’ree assumes the role of adult caregiver.

“‘You know I don’t like you calling him that, Laf.’

‘He calls me worse. And that’s’ who he is anyway. That ain’t the same brother left this house that night.’

‘None of us are.’”

Lafayette’s reason for calling his brother “Newcharlie” results from his feeling that Charlie has changed since he returned home from the juvenile detention facility. Ty’ree, however, points out that they have all been affected by the death of their mother and thus he feels it is unfair for Lafayette to single Charlie out.

“‘How come you don’t just ignore him? Make like he’s not even there.’

‘‘Cause he wasn’t here for years!’ I hadn’t meant to yell. ‘‘Cause,’ I said, almost whispering. ‘‘Cause I want Charlie back. I want my brother. I want him to see me. And I want him not to think I…I was the reason Mama died. I wasn’t the reason.’”

Similarly to other conflicts, Ty’ree’s approach to handling conflict is to ignore them or to divert his attention elsewhere. Lafayette, however, wishes to address them head on. Further, here it is clear that he wavers between sharing the belief that he is indeed responsible for their mother’s death and becoming angered by Charlie’s insistence that this is true. Here, he insists that he wasn’t the reason she died, suggesting that, without Charlie’s insistence that he should have saved her, he would not blame himself.

“‘I don’t like being poor, T.’

Ty’ree looked at me. ‘We won’t always be this way. You know that. It’s just a temp thing.’”

Lafayette is direct in expressing his dislike for the financial struggles the family faces. He recalls, on more than one occasion, watching his mother and Ty’ree calculate the family’s expenses. Ty’ree, however, is optimistic and attempts to encourage Lafayette by instilling hope in him that the challenges they face will not be permanent. This approach seems to motivate Ty’ree, too.

“‘Brother to brother, Lafayette?’

I nodded. ‘B to B,’ I whispered. It was something Ty’ree had started saying right after Mama died. It meant I love you, but we’d never really said that to each other. He’d said brother to brother meant that and then some. It meant we’d be there for each other, no matter what.”

Ty’ree conveys to Lafayette that some subjects are taboo in their household—implying that he does wish to confront difficult subjects, such as the death of their mother or the incarceration of Charlie. However, Ty’ree finds a way to convey to his brothers that he loves and cares for them and that he will always be there to support them, highlighting the theme of Familial Bonds.

“Ty’ree had stopped talking, but I couldn’t look at him. Not right away. Nobody had ever told me that he was right there watching our daddy slip into that frozen pond. Everybody had known it, but nobody had told me. It was like a secret—a lie that had been in my life since before I was born.”

Lafayette is upset when he learns that Ty’ree was present when his father saved the woman and dog from drowning. Lafayette feels a sense of betrayal because this was intentionally kept from him for suspicious reasons. However, Ty’ree likely kept this information from Lafayette because of Ty’ree’s inability to address the event himself.

“‘The thing is,’ Ty’ree said, ‘Charlie wasn’t there for any of it—for Daddy, for Mama. And it’s made him mad. Mad and helpless.’”

Lafayette is frustrated by what he regards as Charlie’s newfound meanness. Here, Ty’ree theorizes the true cause of Charlie’s behavior, suggesting that Charlie’s inability to control or prevent hardships from occurring is what has frustrated him, as well as his physical absence during both of his parents’ deaths.

“After a long while had passed, Dr. Vernon said, ‘You can go now, Lafayette.’

But I didn’t want to go. I liked the way it felt having Dr. Vernon patting my shoulder. I liked how deep and soft his voice was. So I came back. Every Wednesday for a whole year.”

Because Ty’ree has difficulty discussing the death of their mother, Lafayette has few avenues to express his grief. Through his visits to the psychologist, he can process the emotions he is experiencing, which aids in the healing process. Therefore, he doesn’t want to leave Dr. Vernon’s office.

“I wanted to run to him and throw my arms around [Charlie’s] shoulders. But I just stood there, biting my lip and looking into his one good eye. When someone hurts you, Charlie said to me once, you just hold on. Hold on until the pain goes away.”

Though Lafayette has been angered and frustrated by Charlie’s cruel treatment of him, when he sees that his brother has been harmed, his deep-seated love prevails. Through Familial Bonds, Lafayette values his family above all else. Here, he recalls the helpful lessons he learned from Charlie, which demonstrate Charlie’s love for Lafayette. Lafayette uses this lesson even in restraining himself from running and hugging his brother.

“‘I’m always the one,’ Newcharlie said. ‘The bad one. The loser. That’s me. The one who always messes up. Ain’t it always been that way?’

‘Yes,’ Ty’ree said. The muscles in his jaw were working fast. ‘It’s always been that way.’

‘I ain’t never gonna be anything,’ Newcharlie said. ‘So why even try?’”

Charlie is portrayed as the foil to his brother, Ty’ree, who is deemed “Saint Ty’ree.” Charlie’s pain and grief, however, manifest in a problematic way, as Charlie seeks to solve problems by acting out. He expresses his frustration in the belief that he will never be able to overcome this flaw.

“‘It makes you somebody. Aaron got all these other homeboys around him now. He don’t really need me—’ Newcharlie started gulping again. He put his head in both his hands like he was trying to hide inside them. ‘It makes you somebody. It gives you people.’”

Charlie attempts to explain to his brothers why Aaron is compelled to join a gang. Charlie, too, longs for a sense of belonging and desires the unconditional support of others. Ironically, changing his behavior by staying out of trouble will earn this sense of belonging from his actual brothers, which Charlie realizes as the novel ends.

“‘The function of freedom,’ Mama read, ‘is to free someone else.’

I shrugged and went back to my comic book.

You ever thought about that, Laf? Mama asked me. That being free means you help somebody else get free?”

At the time that his mother presents this quote from Toni Morrison to him, Lafayette is too young to understand what it means. By the end of the novel, however, he seems to apply this notion to the circumstances surrounding Charlie, wishing to free him from his Guilt and Blame.

“Aaron took a step toward me, and one of the guys pulled him back. ‘He’s just a kid,’ the guy said. ‘He don’t know.’

Aaron glared at me. I looked back at him. Not frowning but not smiling either. Just looking. It seemed like a long time ago I wanted him to like me, to be my friend. But it didn’t matter anymore. I didn’t need him. Charlie didn’t need him either.”

Lafayette defends Charlie against Aaron, angered that Aaron betrayed Charlie by misleading him and joining a gang. Lafayette understands that Aaron’s friendship is inauthentic and conditional, and Lafayette seeks better for his brother. Lafayette’s courage is a shared trait with his brothers, and in this scene, it demonstrates Familial Bonds.

“That day me and Charlie had been fighting over who got to watch what show on TV. We’d fought all morning and then started fighting again in the afternoon. When Mama went out to visit some friend of hers, she took me with her, to make sure Charlie and me didn’t fight while she was gone. On the way home she pulled a leaf off a tree and handed it to me.

Promise you won’t fight with Charlie anymore, she said. Do that for me, Lafayette.”

Lafayette realizes, as the novel ends, that extending kindness to his brother can be a way to appease and connect with his mother, even though she is gone. He knows that his mother would have been saddened to see the dissent between them. In repairing the severed relationship between himself and Charlie, Lafayette draws strength from the memory of his mother.

“‘Last night,’ I said slowly, ‘I dreamed about that dog you tried to save, Charlie. You did everything you could. Wasn’t your fault it died, you know. It was like that dog was coming to me in the night trying to tell me that.’”

Each of the brothers bears the burden of Guilt and Blame, certain that they are responsible for a death. In his attempt to convince Charlie that he did what was within his abilities to save the dog, Lafayette, perhaps, convinces himself that this is true regarding himself and their mother, too.

“I’d kept [the photographs] hidden from [Charlie], afraid he’d get them and burn them up too. But now I held them out so he could see, not afraid anymore. It was like the pictures were chiseled into my brain.

‘You tried to kill the memory of her,’ I said. ‘But she’s too deep inside us.’

Newcharlie winced, and I wondered if it was because of his hurt eye or what I was saying.”

Lafayette decides to share the photos with Charlie to reconnect with him. He appears to have taken to heart what Ty’ree said about the cause of Charlie’s meanness. Charlie wishes to ignore or forget their mother’s death; ironically, remembering her is the first step in making the pain recede. This moment parallels the advice Charlie once gave Lafayette to “hold on” until physical pain subsided.

“‘When that cop put those cuffs on me, it reminded me about the last time. About how that was the last time I got to see Mama living. I wish the last time had been something else. I wish it had been me sitting on the couch next to her making her laugh. I used to make her laugh all the time. I wish that was the way she got to remember me. Not with no handcuffs on. I should have been here,’ Charlie whispered.”

Ty’ree’s predictions about Charlie’s true feelings prove accurate when Charlie shares his feelings with Lafayette for the first time. He is ashamed of his poor behavior and saddened at the thought that he may have disappointed their mother.

“‘I saw your boy Aaron,’ Ty’ree said.

Charlie frowned. ‘He ain’t my boy.’

I wanted to ask Charlie what it was like to be in that room with all those gang guys, if he was scared when he had to fight. I stared at him, wanting to know what he was thinking when that first punch landed.

‘He was your boy though,’ Ty’ree said.

‘Yeah,’ Charlie said. ‘But that was a long time ago.’”

Charlie no longer considering Aaron a friend demonstrates that the previous night’s experience were a turning point for him, causing Charlie to realize that seeking out trouble will not bring him the kind of kinship and belonging that he seeks. In indicating that this period was a “long time ago,” Charlie shows how his feelings for Aaron have changed.

“‘This is art, though, ain’t it?’ [Charlie] said, waving his hand over us. ‘Sometimes I feel like our life is one big work of art—it’s everything.’ He stared down at his bare feet. ‘And nothing.’”

Charlie’s assertion that their life parallels art is a powerful insight that demonstrates Charlie has come to some type of understanding about their lives. His belief that their life and art are both everything and nothing captures the complicated but intertwined relationship between art and life.