35 pages • 1 hour read
Gary SotoTaking Sides
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1991A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Egypt and the Camel Driver
Egypt—particularly the images of the Nile and the camel driver that feature in Lincoln’s geography textbook—is a motif that evolves alongside Lincoln’s character arc. The motif is first introduced on Page 5, when Lincoln is “looking at pictures of Egypt in his geography book. He admired the Sphinx […] and marveled at the Nile, a dark river that seemed to oppose gravity by flowing north. He looked closely at a camel driver smiling into the camera” (5). Egypt is here figured as a place as foreign to Lincoln as his new home in Sycamore.
From this point onward, Egypt and the geography book appear in moments of significant difficulty and/or self-revelation. During the novel’s first description of Lincoln attending his new school, Lincoln becomes bored and opens the textbook, which falls to the picture of the camel driver: “He’s like me, Lincoln thought. Brown as earth and no one knows his name” (14). An image that initially symbolized the unfamiliarity of Lincoln’s surroundings now resonates with Lincoln’s sense of how out of place he himself is (or feels), developing the theme of Identity as Multifaceted.
In another instance, Lincoln, troubled by his mother’s relationship with Roy, asks his mother whether he looks like his father, and she says, “You’re just like him. Strong” (36). Right after this, Lincoln opens the textbook, which again opens to the camel driver, and Lincoln reflects, “It was a hard life for him, too, and for everybody who worked under the sun” (36). The moment parallels Lincoln’s attempts to understand his roots, including the history of Hispanic Americans working in agriculture. He feels out of place in the suburbs, but the camel driver provides a touchstone for understanding himself.
The camel driver appears so often that when Lincoln opens Vicky’s locker and sees the same book open to the same man, Lincoln thinks, “Can’t get away from that dude” (62). Lincoln also takes comfort in this connection to Vicky, which allows him to feel as if they were together again at a moment when Lincoln is realizing that he has changed since leaving Franklin.
Lincoln and Tony’s Bets
The three bets between Tony and Lincoln are a motif that underscore the theme of The Durability of Friendship. The first reference to a bet appears when Lincoln tells his mother he forgot to remind Tony that Tony owes him $2 from their bet on the 49er’s game. His mother does not remember the bet, but the fact that Lincoln expects her to indicates the importance Lincoln places on these tethers to Tony.
The bets’ next appearance occurs immediately before the conflict that rips Tony and Lincoln apart until the story’s end. Before they ask the thrift store owner about Lincoln’s TV, they make a double or nothing bet on their original 49er’s bet. The scene is lighthearted, the two laughing and flipping a coin to bring the deal to $4. It contrasts with the falling-out that follows, which seems to jeopardize the survival of this kind of friendly gesture, along with Lincoln and Tony’s broader friendship.
Lincoln eventually receives an envelope from Tony in the mail with no letter, just “four dirty one-dollar bills” (110). The “dirty” dollars are important; when they were joking before the thrift store incident, Lincoln remarked that he wanted to be paid in “crisp dollars.” The repayment is an act of good faith and continued loyalty, but the money’s tattered state and the absence of a letter suggest the strain present in the friendship.
The book’s end also resolves the bet motif. Lincoln calls Tony the morning after the game, eager to pay him the $4 they had wagered during the pizza scene after Franklin beats Columbus. The call mirrors the novel’s opening scene, signaling the resumption of the pair’s friendship; while the friendship has changed since the novel began, the parallel scenes suggest its underlying durability, which the bets symbolize.
Break-Ins and the Stolen TV
The break-in at the Mendozas’ Mission District home spurs Lincoln’s mother to cross the cultural divide and move to Sycamore, which is only 10 miles away but feels to Lincoln like another world. The robbery occurs before the narrative opens, and the novel notes only that “the window screen was slashed, and the TV and stereo were gone” (3). This stolen TV becomes the most complex of the book’s motifs, touching on each of the book’s three main themes.
The TV is an image of adolescence and growing up in two ways. When telling Lincoln that he has found the stolen TV, Tony explains that it must be the same one because it has the same crayon marks on the side that it bore when they were younger. This serves as a reminder of how long the two have been friends, as well as how much each has grown since Lincoln scribbled the marks there.
The TV’s reappearance in Lincoln and Tony’s lives also triggers the conflict that will separate the two for much of the book. During the thrift shop scene, Lincoln struggles to understand why his friend so vehemently believes the elderly and sick storeowner stole the TV. Tony, meanwhile, either will not or cannot hear Lincoln’s concerns in this moment. He is doing what he believes will bring justice to Lincoln, but he is also retaliating for the robbery, which separated him and Lincoln. Ironically, Tony’s aggression plays into stereotypes about the Mission District as dangerous, and it was precisely the threat of danger that pushed Lincoln’s mother to leave the area. That Lincoln’s new house is also broken into is also ironic, suggesting that the Mission District’s reputation is to some degree unearned.
At the book’s end, Tony tells Lincoln he bought the TV for $15 and that it will be Lincoln’s Christmas present, solidifying the relationship between the TV and the novel’s exploration of friendship.
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