The tone of Al Capone Does My Shirts is complex, as it is satirical but also serious. At the beginning of the book, the satirical side of the narrator, Moose, comes out as he describes his new home on Alcatraz. He says, "I want to be here like I want poison oak on my private parts" (page 3). He is also at first somewhat satirical about the school his family wants his autistic sister Natalie to attend, the Esther P. Marinoff School. He describes the school as "where kids have macaroni salad in their hair and wear their clothes inside out and there isn't a chalkboard or a book in sight" (page 3-4).
As the book goes on, Moose develops a more serious tone about his sister. For example, when he is watching her and trying to keep her calm before her school interview, she starts having a tantrum and ripping up the moons she's been drawing. Moose says, "her eyes are beginning to storm over" (page 182). Moose clearly feels responsible for Natalie, his sister, and distraught over her uncontrollable rages.
There are also some fantastical elements in the book; for example, Al Capone's mother is on a boat going to Alcatraz, and she soothes a small baby. When she attempts to visit her son, the metal stays on her corset set off the metal detectors, and she is humiliated (page 134). In addition, Moose writes a secret note to Al Capone through the prison laundry asking him to help get his sister into the school, and when Moose receives his shirt from the laundry, the word "Done" is written on a note in the sleeve. These parts of the book add a fantastical tone to the book.
No comments:
Post a Comment