Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2010

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-12

Chapters 13-17

Chapters 18-22

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Law

Theodore Boone is incredibly knowledgeable about the law for someone who is still a kid, as the novel’s title implies. Throughout the novel, Theo helps other students (and even a staff member) from his school with their various legal troubles, often remarking after helping that each person is just “[a]nother satisfied client” (263). He enjoys these encounters, as they affirm his commitment to becoming a lawyer when he gets older. This enjoyment is facilitated by his familiar surroundings in his parents’ law office at Boone & Boone every day after school, where he works on homework and his own legal advice from his small storage closet of an office.

Theo’s voice also explains the variety of legal aspects that are key to understanding the novel’s plot. At the beginning, he is the one to explain to his class what is happening with the murder trial. He also explains legal terms that are crucial to the plot as he navigates through his dilemma. For example, Theo thinks about the importance of getting a guilty verdict in the first trial with Duffy: “If the jury found Mr. Duffy not guilty, he would literally get away with murder. And he could never again be brought to trial for the same crime. Theo knew all about double jeopardy—the State can’t try you a second time, if the jury finds you not guilty the first time” (169). His expertise and his knowledge in the narration help to move the novel along while also making it more understandable.

Education

Theo complains about having to go to school when the trial is going on because he thinks that it will be more useful for him if he’s able to watch trial attorneys in action. There are rarely murder trials in Strattenburg, so he’s especially perturbed that he must go to school. When he confronts his mother about his father’s plans to keep him away from the trial, he claims that he really only benefits from two classes. The two classes he enjoys are Government and Spanish, both of which come in handy throughout the novel, in Theo’s understanding of the legal system and his need to use Spanish to understand Julio’s cousin, who he tries to keep up with, with some help from Julio himself.

Theo’s position on the utility of education does not openly change over the course of the novel. However, his education and what he learns is evidence of his journey toward understanding what justice means, because it illustrates how he begins the novel wanting to practice the law without fully understanding what justice really means and its complications. Theo needs the tools from school to help him as he parses out the situation and decides what to do.

Innocence & Guilt

Early in the novel, Grisham builds interest in the Duffy trial, with Theo discussing whether Pete Duffy is guilty with Judge Gantry, with his class, and with his parents. However, at the start of the trial, Theo grows frustrated with himself because he wants to give Duffy the benefit of being innocent until proven guilty, thinking, “Why couldn’t he follow the law, give Mr. Duffy the benefit of innocence? Why couldn’t he do what good lawyers were supposed to do? This frustrated him as he followed along behind Mr. Duffy and his lawyers” (77). Instead, he makes a predetermined decision in his head, a suspicion that ultimately proves to be correct.

This motif changes further into the novel as the suspense builds around whether Duffy will get away with murder. Will the court rule him to be innocent or guilty? As Theo decides what to do about Bobby and the golf gloves, he is weighed down by knowing that they provide critical evidence for the trial, which the prosecution desperately needs to show that Duffy is guilty. Otherwise, he will be presumed innocent when Theo now knows definitively that he is not. As Ike tells Theo, “The jury is about to make the wrong decision, but based on the evidence, you can’t blame them. The system doesn’t always work, you know. Look at all the innocent people who’ve been sent to death row. Look at the guilty people who get off” (158). Ike himself walks between the line of legal and illegal, making the notion of innocence more complicated.