83 pages • 2 hours read
Sarah Weeks , Gita VaradarajanSave Me a Seat
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2016A 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.
Themes
Assumptions Can Be Harmful
Throughout the novel, many characters make assumptions about other characters, especially Ravi. When Ravi first meets Joe, he is thoroughly unimpressed by what he considers to be Joe’s sloppy appearance: “I can’t believe kids in America are allowed to come to school looking like him. In India, we had to wear uniforms with dress pants, a collared shirt, and a tie. Joe Sylvester has on tracksuit pants and an unironed T-shirt” (51). Of course, Joe also thinks that Ravi looks strange in his ironed shirt and slicked hair. However, both characters make assumptions about the other one solely based on their appearances, demonstrating the parallelism between Ravi and Joe. These assumptions, such as that Joe is lazy or unintelligent on Ravi’s part, are often untrue and can even be hurtful. Miss Frost cautions Ravi against making assumptions about anyone, advice Ravi eventually takes to heart and that helps him transform into a more psychologically-mature individual.
Many of the assumptions that the characters make are also due to perceived differences between the character who assumes something and the character about whom something is being assumed. For example, Ravi assumes that because Joe looks differently than he does, Joe is less intelligent. This is, of course, not the case. Miss Frost is careful to point this out. However, assumptions serve to distance characters from one another, exacerbating perceived differences. The authors seem to imply the harm that can come to people when they assume things based on such differences, harm which occurs both from the emotional distance and the respective othering that occurs as a result of these perceived differences.
However, Ravi is also culpable of assuming similarities between himself and Dillon when in fact there are none. After the incident in the lunch room, Ravi suggests, “All this time I’d been assuming Dillon wanted to be my friend—but I couldn’t have been more wrong” (128). In this way, the authors show that assumptions can be doubly problematic; that is, people who are assumed to be nice can also end up being horrifically mean bullies. There is some implication that Ravi assumes that Dillon is nice based upon his appearance; that is, Ravi assumes that Dillon wants to be his friend because he is attractive and popular, which Ravi wishes to be himself. The authors play with the idea of the beauty bias throughout the book; at the beginning of the novel, Ravi thinks that Dillon looks like a Bollywood star but at the conclusion, Ravi believes that Dillon’s crooked teeth make him look like a villain instead. In this way, assumptions are integrally connected to appearance throughout the novel. The novel plays with the idea that looks are deceiving, arguing that books should not be judged based on their covers.
The Prevalence of Bullying
Much of the novel concerns how prevalent bullying is in the modern American classroom. Both main characters suffer as victims of bullying and are bullied primarily because they are perceived as being different. In this case, both characters are even bullied by the same individual, Dillon, who despite having everything, seems to take out his frustration by torturing other students. Joe differentiates how Dillon behaves from the bullying he experiences at the hands of other kids: “Robert Princenthal walks by and accidentally bumps into my shoulder. At least I think it’s an accident. Robert is another Dillon Samreen wannabe. The difference between him and Tom Dinkins is that Robert isn’t mean when he’s on his own” (23). Joe seems to think that other kids do not want to go along with Dillon’s behavior and only do so in order to be popular. In Joe’s mind, popularity seems to be exclusively associated with a kind of predatory behavior in which a person like Dillon proves his superiority by putting someone else down. The authors present bullying as being so prevalent that the victims, like Joe, have internalized it, believing their treatment to be partially their fault.
However, Ravi and Joe eventually find commonality and strength within Dillon’s treatment of them. When Ravi sees that Joe’s mother is the lunch lady, Ravi thinks, “Could this be Big Foot’s mother? Suddenly I remember the cartoon Perimma had found in my backpack. I’m Stupid’s Mommy. The person who drew the cartoon was insulting Big Foot’s mother, just as he insulted mine” (168). After Ravi realizes this, he is able to empathize with Joe because he knows exactly how Joe must have felt when he saw that drawing. Ravi decides, then and there, that he will help Joe although he does not yet know how to do it. Once he sees Dillon steal Joe’s peanut M&M, however, Ravi knows exactly what he can do to help his fellow zebra. This then catapults both boys into action so that they can take revenge against Dillon’s constant bullying.
Revenge also represents something that seems to be inherently equated with bullying. After Joe’s successful prank on Dillon, Ravi thinks, “The bully of Albert Einstein Elementary School drops his pants and runs screaming down the hall in his starry underwear. Brilliant! I say a secret prayer of thanks” (210). The authors definitely believe in a kind of narrative karma as far as bullying is concerned. In fact, Ravi even feels to some extent as though Dillon has the right to treat him poorly because Ravi bullied Ramaswami at his previous school. In this way, balance always seems to find its place, as rude characters tend to get what they seem to deserve, at least as far as a fifth grader’s conception of justice goes. However, it is only once Ravi and Joe work together that they are able to exact revenge upon Dillon for his bullying.
Being Different
Both Ravi and Joe are different from the other fifth grade students at Albert Einstein—Ravi because he has just immigrated to Hamilton from Bangalore, and Joe due to his APD. Joe’s differences lead to people, including Ravi, making assumptions about him, and Ravi similarly suffers because of these perceived differences. However, in Joe’s case specifically, his differences lead to unique abilities, such as his ability to listen to other people and truly hear what they are saying. In Ravi’s case, his difference is more cultural and he has a hard time fitting in as a result. When Joe thinks about how different Ravi is form some of his peers, he believes, “Miss Frost was right: It must be really hard coming all the way from India to New Jersey. Especially when you have to deal with somebody calling you names and stealing your mechanical pencils—not to mention hitting you on purpose with a softball” (204-05). Because of Joe’s unique ability to listen and really hear what people are saying, he is much more empathetic than some of his other peers. Although Joe and Ravi’s cultures are different, they both have similar experiences, especially concerning Dillon’s bullying. Ravi reflects on the similarities in their experiences and realizes that he and Joe might have more in common than he originally thought. The experiences that both these characters share demonstrate how sometimes differences are only skin-deep; we often perceive greater differences than actually exist. However, once people are able to look past the perception of difference, they often find inherent commonalities in human experience that can lead to lasting friendships.
