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.
Themes
The Durability of Friendship
Friendship and loyalty are at Taking Sides’s core. The story develops this theme through Lincoln’s two closest friends, Tony and James. Tony is the “old friend” from San Francisco’s urban Mission District who has known Lincoln for most of his life. James is the “new friend” who lives in Sycamore, the affluent San Francisco suburb where Lincoln and his mother have just moved. Lincoln is conflicted throughout much of the story because he is unsure how to exist in both his old world and his new, and Tony and James are markers for this aspect of Lincoln’s arc. The parallels that exist between Tony and James underscore both that one can have friends in multiple places and that true friendship is not affected by physical or temporal distance.
Tony is almost as important as Franklin or the Mission District itself to Lincoln’s perception of himself and the world around him. The book opens with Lincoln and Tony talking on the phone about Lincoln’s new neighborhood and school, which demonstrates that the friends are still close despite the physical distance between them. However, the physical distance becomes emotional distance as the narrative develops. During their argument about the TV’s theft, it seem as though Lincoln’s changed circumstances now divide them; Tony accuses Lincoln of succumbing to middle-class, “white” naivete, while Lincoln, newly put off by Tony’s attitude, fails to recognize that Tony has Lincoln’s best interests at heart. Lincoln is overwhelmed by the differences between him and Tony and leaves, but the $4 Tony later sends him to settle a bet indicates that Tony is not ready to give up on their friendship. The money is not accompanied by a letter, but Lincoln understands, and the two patch things up during the basketball game, demonstrating that physical and emotional distance cannot contain true friendship.
By contrast, Lincoln’s friendship with begins with physical proximity but emotional distance. Lincoln is as leery of James as he is of his new neighborhood, but his experiences demonstrate new friendship can grow when one is willing to try. For instance, when Lincoln goes to dinner at James’s house, he finds that the food is different than he’s used to but that James’s family accepts him. Later, James himself shows loyalty to Lincoln when Bukowski and Lincoln almost come to blows. James tells Lincoln, “If he gives you trouble, I’ll stand with you [Lincoln]. I’ve known him since first grade. He’s a jerk” (50). James demonstrates the same type of friendship and loyalty that Tony was attempting to show during the pawn shop scene.
Ultimately, Lincoln accepts both James and Tony and understands that he can be loyal to them both. Through this, the novel demonstrates the ability of friendship to transcend difference and change.
Identity as Multifaceted
Lincoln’s move from the Mission District to Sycamore thrusts him into the middle of a new culture, causing him to question who he is and where he belongs. Amid a majority white, very affluent San Francisco suburb, Lincoln must reckon with the fact that the difference between himself and his new classmates involves not only race/ethnicity, economics, or urban/suburban lifestyles, but all three at the same time. Lincoln’s biggest revelation is not that he is an either/or, but that he is a both/and.
Lincoln’s culture shock on moving to Sycamore is threefold. Except for one Black player, he is the only person of color on his new basketball team; in fact, he is in the racial minority at school generally. Though Lincoln and his mother are now relatively well-off, Lincoln is also unused to Sycamore’s affluence; he lives in a neighborhood filled with large houses and driveways boasting expensive cars driven by men and women who wear suits and carry briefcases. The community is also distinctly suburban in look and culture. Amid so many changes, even the relative ease of Lincoln’s new life becomes a source of unease: “He liked Franklin Junior High, tough as it was, with its fights in the hallways and in the noisy cafeteria” (7).
Lincoln’s journey toward acceptance is a thematic lesson in the idea that an individual does not have to (and cannot) abandon their past even as they embrace change. Lincoln’s mother exemplifies this. She has no problem assimilating into her new lifestyle and location. She owns a successful business that is doing well, she drives a Nissan Maxima with power windows (not something Lincoln is used to), and she begins dating a white man named Roy. At the same time, she retains her cultural identity, cooking the same Mexican American meals she did before the move. Roy also illustrates the complex forms identity can take. Lincoln initially sees Roy as a privileged white man and is therefore surprised when Roy tells Lincoln he went to Franklin; the revelation implies not only that Roy has working-class roots but also that those roots remain important to him.
Lincoln’s acceptance of identity’s multifaceted nature coincides with the narrative climax. Sitting on the bench with Coach Yesutis angry at him for talking with and cheering on his old Franklin teammates, Lincoln sees himself clearly. Everyone from his past and present is in the same place, showing that the two can coincide. Lincoln understands in this moment that culture is about carrying what he wants with him and realizing he doesn’t have to take a “side” to be himself.
The Gains and Losses of Growing Up
The theme of adolescence and growing parallels the theme of identity and assimilation in many ways; Lincoln’s movement from childhood into adolescence coincides with and mirrors the physical and cultural shift from the Mission District to Sycamore. While Lincoln reached some adolescent milestones (e.g., first romantic relationship) while he was still attending Columbus, it is only when he leaves the Mission District that he recognizes the passing of his childhood. This realization is an important milestone in and of itself and speaks to adolescence as a time of mingled loss and gain.
The former is clearest when Lincoln returns to Franklin after his argument with Tony. Standing in front of Franklin, Lincoln “[stares] at the school, full of sadness” (61). The following sentences expand on the cause of Lincoln’s sadness as he reflects on the many landmark moments of his time at Franklin: “He had gone there for two years, had fights there, played games there, found his first girl there. […] He breathed in the years gone by and climbed the fence in three grunting moves” (61). It is as if time is flashing before his eyes; he is growing up and can’t slow it down or stop it. Much of Lincoln’s sense of loss centers on this; Franklin represents a time in his life full of “firsts” he won’t get back and can’t reexperience.
Nevertheless, adolescence also brings with it new experiences and benefits. Lincoln’s growing confidence in who he is and his developing sense of life’s complexities are among the latter. Early in the novel, Lincoln often hesitates to voice his real opinions for fear of social rejection; his opinions also tend toward all-or-nothing thinking, as evidenced by his struggle to understand how he can be Hispanic, working-class, etc. yet live in Sycamore. His character arc takes him to a place of greater clarity, nuance, and self-assurance. He speaks his mind more and conceives of the world (including himself) in less absolute terms. Though Lincoln isn’t much older at the end of the story than he is at the beginning, much about his inner life is wiser and more mature.
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By Gary Soto
