The Pinballs

These chapters show both The Importance of Love and Support as it grows between people who have been long deprived of it and the long-term consequences of that deprivation. Because Thomas J and Harvey experienced different types of mistreatment, the consequences for each boy are different though both suffered the deprivation of love and support.

Thomas J was raised in an emotionally neglectful household. Only after being removed from the twins’ care does he begin to realize their effect on him. He tells Mr. Mason that he struggles with “not knowing what to say” and doesn’t “feel like a comfort” when he speaks to them in the hospital even though he wants to be (88). Mr. Mason intuits that the twins never expressed love or affirming words to Thomas J. He tells Thomas J stories from his own childhood, which was very similar. He tells Thomas J how “‘love’ was never mentioned in [his] house” and he “can never remember [his] mother hugging [him] or kissing [him], not one time” (89). For the first time ever, Thomas J is being affirmed, accepted, and understood by an adult who has empathy for him.

It is important that parents and guardians make children feel loved and accepted. While the twins treated Thomas J more like furniture or a pet, Mr. Mason demonstrates genuine interest and investment in Thomas J’s experiences and feelings. Mr. Mason confides something he “never told […] to anybody” (89) so that Thomas J might feel like he can confide in him in turn. He listens to Thomas J’s own thoughts and feelings and affirms them, nodding and saying, “I think you’re right, Thomas J” (90). Mr. Mason behaves as a good role model and guardian. Though Thomas J still struggles expressing his emotions, he shows his appreciation with small things like “mov[ing] closer to Mr. Mason on the car seat” (94) and asking him for more stories “about the things that happened to you when you were little” (95). Mr. Mason’s demonstration of love and support begins to help Thomas J through the difficulties he is experiencing.

Throughout the novel, there are hints foreshadowing that Harvey’s mother is not fully represented by his idealistic recollection of her: “the least thing made her furious” (69), she would degradingly call him his “father’s son” (83), and she has not responded to Harvey’s letter to her at the commune. To cope with his father’s abuse, Harvey has imagined a mother who would have loved and supported him if she knew about Harvey’s broken legs. In these chapters, that fiction falls apart when Harvey has dinner with his father.

When Harvey and his father argue about whether Harvey’s mother wrote to him, his father slowly and mercilessly deconstructs Harvey’s claims, “pronounc[ing] every word carefully” (82) when he tells Harvey that she never wrote, not even to answer when he wrote to her with news of Harvey’s appendectomy or measles.

His father’s insistence shatters Harvey’s fantasy, making him feel “old and tired” (83), without the strength to even hold his fork. Oftentimes, children who experience abuse or neglect have an “increased likelihood of daydreaming about an idealized version of their original families” (Somer, Eli, et al. “Childhood Trauma and Maladaptive Daydreaming: Fantasy Functions and Themes In A Multi-Country Sample.” Journal of Trauma and Dissociation, vol. 22, no. 3, 2021, pp. 288-303). In childhood, this type of daydreaming can be a coping mechanism to survive the abuse and emotional suffering they are experiencing. A child can mentally escape their immediate situation by leaning into the fantasy they have created. While this strategy might work to temporarily anesthetize against pain and suffering, it has negative long-term consequences such as stagnant emotional growth, unrealistic expectations, and persistent escapist fantasy through adulthood.

Harvey’s father does not dispel this fantasy in a patient or understanding way because his self-interest, rather than Harvey’s interests, motivates him. Harvey’s father demonstrates this tendency throughout the book, most notably when he put on a show of tears for the police and nurses immediately after running over Harvey’s legs. Harvey’s father’s priority is that Harvey doesn’t think of him as the “bad” parent but realizes only his mother’s “bad” behavior. This approach indicates to Harvey that neither parent cares for or supports him, and he loses the fantasy that had helped him persevere.

As a result, Harvey loses the desire to persevere at all. When he gets home, he tells Carlie, “I don’t think I can make it—period […] I really don’t think I can” (85). Though the novel does not explicitly name it, Harvey is clearly describing suicidal ideation, “a broad term used to describe a range of contemplations, wishes, and preoccupations with death and suicide” (Harmer, Bonnie, et al. “Suicidal Ideation.” National Library of Medicine. 24 April 2023). Harvey’s vague description of not being able to “make it—period” would fall under this broad category. Children who experience physical and emotional abuse are two and a half times more likely to experience suicidal attempts or ideations than children who do not experience child abuse.

While Harvey initially is admitted to the hospital for an infection of his compound fracture, due to his complex response to his trauma—both the creation of a fantasy and the disintegration of it—Harvey must stay in hospital care. Mrs. Mason confesses to Carlie and Thomas J that “the worst thing is that [Harvey] just doesn’t seem to care” (104) about the dangerous implications of his severe infection. In the next chapters, Harvey’s illness worsens, but the love and support he receives from his friends begins to help him.