Sunny Side Up

The comic books that Sunny and Buzz read become a motif that strengthens their friendship and provides Sunny with a badly needed escape from her circumstances. The stories also offer Sunny a new vocabulary for Embracing New Growth. When Sunny first meets Buzz, she has never read a comic book, and he introduces her to superheroes like Batman, Swamp Thing, Superman, and the Incredible Hulk. They spend many hours reading comic books together and talking about the various heroes’ backstories and powers. Full-page illustrations of these heroes emphasize their importance to Sunny. From the backstories of characters like Batman and Superman, Sunny realizes that difficult circumstances do not have to limit what a person eventually becomes. She also realizes that not even superheroes can save everyone. These realizations offer her a way to process her own circumstances from a safe distance.

Learning about the heroes’ powers also gives her an opening to talk about her own desire for invisibility and inspires her to be a hero in her own community by using her talents to help others. This leads to the children’s quest to locate and return lost cats to their elderly neighbors. When Sunny reads about Swamp Thing, she is finally able to articulate her distress over The Harmful Impact of Secrets in her life. As she explains, Swamp Thing is her favorite hero because he has no “disguises or secrets” (160). Most importantly, when she reads about the Hulk, she equates her brother’s transformation to Bruce Banner’s destructive rampages, and although she is saddened, she comes to see that Dale’s recent bad behavior is not entirely within his control. These comics create a fictional “community” that has great value to Sunny, reinforcing the text’s overall focus on The Importance of Community.

When Sunny first meets Teezy and Ethel in Chapter 4, they welcome her to their community with a gift that Sunny finds bizarre: a toilet paper cover shaped like a Barbie in a long macrame dress. This was actually a common item in the United States in the 1970s, but even in this context, it is an unusual gift for a child. This moment implies that the Florida retirement community’s residents are out of touch with Sunny’s world and might have little to offer her. Sunny is confounded by the gift but politely thanks them. Later, however, when she discovers that the bathroom is out of toilet paper, she sees the use in the strange gift. Despite its odd appearance, the Barbie toilet paper cover actually does have a use. In combination with Teezy and Ethel’s consistent warmth, this realization shifts Sunny’s perspective in a positive way. The toilet paper cover therefore stands as a lesson not to dismiss people too quickly. Ultimately, Sunny learns that even people who seem out of touch, like Ethel, Teezy, and Pat, have hidden depths of kindness, warmth, understanding, and support. At the end of the novel, the Barbie toilet paper cover is one of the precious souvenirs of Sunny’s trip, and it is clear that she has come to appreciate The Importance of Community in all of its forms.

In Chapter 13, Sunny reads an encyclopedia entry about the eruption of Vesuvius and its impact on the ancient city of Pompeii. The famous eruption and her discussion of it at the dinner table become a symbol of the volatility of her family situation. Dale is like a volcano, constantly threatening an eruption that will consume the happy family dynamics that Sunny has come to depend on. This idea is echoed in Dale’s actual “explosion” during the Fourth of July fireworks display in Chapter 20, which is appropriately titled “Volcano.” As fireworks explode in the sky over the family’s heads, Dale’s anger finally erupts, and he strikes out at his father, accidentally hurting Sunny in the process. This is the final straw for his parents, and they cancel the family trip to the beach and send Sunny to Florida while they try to get Dale some help. Dale’s explosion during the fireworks has a lasting impact on Sunny; she misunderstands the sequence of events and believes that she is being sent away because she is at fault for Dale’s behavior. This misguided but damaging notion simmers inside of her until she has her own “explosion” and gets angry at her grandfather for smoking in secret. The connection between Dale’s explosion and Sunny’s is made explicit in the scene’s visuals when Sunny’s eyes are depicted as erupting volcanoes just before she confronts Pat (195).