76 pages • 2 hours read
Restart
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Themes
The Possibility of Change and Growth
The middle school years are a time of becoming for every young person. Almost invariably, middle school kids are dissatisfied with who they are and yearn to become different. They wish to be older, taller, prettier, more sophisticated, or more popular. One irony of Restart is Korman’s demonstration that these young people who are changing so drastically and rapidly have, in a real sense, already arrived. That is, they are all distinct, fairly predictable, and set in their opinions and relationships.
Because people at this age live in fear of the judgment of their peers, making intentional change is difficult. Korman captures the essence of this struggle when he describes Chase’s trials in the Hiawassee lunchroom, where his freedom is greatly restricted. His video club friends distrust him when he sits with the football players, but the football players mock him when he sits with the video club. Committing to a significant change in middle school is a deliberate act of bravery.
Chase is emblematic of the person who is capable of change because he has no past. The joy of befriending Brendan and joining in his antics is a pleasure that leads him in the direction of positive growth and development. The pain inflicted on others by Aaron and Bear, who tell Chase they are his friends, dissuades him from aligning with them. Ultimately, Chase chooses to become a new person.
In contrast, Joel represents the idea that people can change despite—and even because of—their past. Chase’s amnesia gives him a blank slate that allows him a certain freedom in remaking his identity. Joel, however, is encumbered by all his memories of being bullied, experiences that have left indelible marks on his personality. However, as Joel returns to Hiawassee despite his fear, and as he observes Chase’s own transformation, Joel realizes that he too can overcome his past and determine his future. By the novel’s end, Joel demonstrates both bravery and leadership. Together, Joel and Chase show that while you cannot control how other people think or act, you can control yourself, and that virtually anyone can change for the better.
Bullying in Middle School
Korman deals realistically with the ubiquitous brutality of bullying in middle school. He captures how the bullying relationship develops between the bully and the victim, expressed so well in Shoshanna’s description of the escalating treatment of her brother Joel. Korman depicts the connection between bullying and athletics clearly: The athletes expect to jostle and haze one another, and they give as good as they get. When athletes treat nonathletes in the same way, it translates as thuggery, from which it develops into a code of expected behavior.
Once set free from his memories of being the “Alpha Rat” (13) of bullies, Chase immediately recognizes the unfairness of bullying and the pain it causes. Korman reveals that the gradual return of Chase’s memories is filled with remorse because Chase recalls how he harmed others, even tearing the head off of his half-sister’s doll. He admits that he fears facing up to Joel when he thinks of the arbitrary pain he caused him.
In that, to an extent, he is an innocent, Chase becomes the object of expected good-natured hazing from the other football players, and then blatant bullying from Aaron and Bear. When he flees from them after they attack, it is not out of fear but because he recognizes his own maliciousness. Chase and several others stand up to bullying, each in their own way, suffering various degrees of pain in the process but ultimately emerging stronger and more self-assured.
True Friendship
If there is a middle school example of John Milton’s maxim about demonic souls hanging together—“Devil with devil damned. Firm concord holds”—it is in Restart. It may be said that the book is a treatise on the difference between true friends and criminal conspirators. The essential lesson Korman teaches is that friends grow in the same space.
It makes perfect sense that Aaron, Bear, and Chase (A-B-C) would be the “Three Musketeers” (186) in that they share physical similarities, a love of football, and a common bad attitude. Their proximity and shared misbehavior forced them to lean on one another. Korman asserts that their bond is faux intimacy cemented by misdeeds. As Chase’s mother says to him, she always suspected he had goodness within that he wasn’t revealing.
True friendship emerges first between Chase and Brendan, who share nothing in common. As the bond between them grows, each takes risks to protect the other. Brendan risks the ire of the video club when he invites Chase to join. Chase takes on a fellow football player to protect Brendan. Even when their friendship is challenged by the music room fiasco, Brendan never gives up on Chase’s sincerity. A similar relationship develops between Chase and Shoshanna, though it takes a different track, as all true friendships do
The Courage to Cope with Fear
It would probably be impossible to write an honest book about middle schoolers without dealing with the topic of fear. Just so, fear is pervasive throughout Restart. Chase is afraid of what he will experience on his first day back at school, where he finds that most of the students are afraid of him. Joel’s fear of bullying caused his parents to send him to a boarding school. His protective sister speaks with him every night because she worries about how he is doing.
The thing that sets Chase’s fear apart is his honesty about his feelings. As he comes to grips with what a bully the old Chase was, he recognizes that he and his friends acted like big men out of insecurity: They were afraid they were not that important. He cringes upon seeing the fear he still provokes in his peers at Hiawassee. Solway’s prophetic words, that we block out what we cannot cope with, resonate with Chase, who is afraid of what he will learn about himself as his memories return.
Korman’s characters enact the full range of responses to their fears, and developing the courage to conquer it is not a linear journey. Even brave Chase gives in to his fear when he affirms Aaron’s lie about the fire in the music room. The reactions to dread that stand out most, however, are the courageous moments in which kids tell the truth, take the consequences, and confront the adults—fully facing their fears through it all.
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