The Man Who Loved Clowns

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of bullying, ableism, and death.

Clowns are a symbol of Punky’s innocent, childlike, and fun-loving nature. Punky is obsessed with clowns, from Ronald McDonald to Jellybean, a clown on his favorite children’s television show. His bedroom is decorated with clowns, and Delrita even makes several woodcarvings of clowns, without which Punky refuses to leave the house. Some aspects of Punky’s personality parallel those of a clown’s performance—he is playful, full of joy, and gets along with children better than he does adults. The novel also highlights that the way people react to clowns also reflects the way the public tends to view Punky. Clowns are entertaining, but they can also make people scared or uncomfortable. Punky usually makes people laugh, but sometimes his unexpected ways of socializing scare people off.

At one point, Delrita enters Punky’s room to let off steam, frustrated by how his childish behavior gets him in trouble. She hits Punky’s toy punching bag clown, “wanting him to fall down and stay down, but he bounced back up on his balloon bottom and continued to leer” (37). This symbolizes Delrita’s wish for Punky’s behavior to stop getting him and the family in trouble.