Boys Don't Cry: Themes (WJEC Eduqas GCSE English Literature): Revision Note

Boys Don't Cry: themes

The highest marks are typically awarded to responses that show thoughtful, critical engagement with the ideas and themes in a text. By highlighting how certain themes relate to the questions asked, you demonstrate a secure understanding of both the text itself and the writer’s purpose in shaping it as they have. This strengthens the examiner’s confidence in your ability to analyse the work with clarity and authority.

Below are some of the themes that could be explored in Boys Don’t Cry. In a novel with complex and emotive messages, there will be more themes than just those analysed here, and you are encouraged to identify other themes or ideas within the text:

• Family

• The weight of expectation

• Responsibility

• Identity and judgement

Family

Whilst the drama around Dante and a teenage pregnancy, the attacks on Adam’s identity, both physical and verbal, and personal growth, are all key to Boys Don’t Cry, Blackman uses the novel to explore the importance of love and support from family. 

For the Bridgeman family, their journey through those moments, and coming out the other side of them as a family unit, recognises the beauty of their family bond. At the start of the novel, they are fractured, together in the home but all living separate lives, and anything they do together is out of expectation rather than any enthusiasm to be with each other. By the end, they have grown into a tight-knit family unit and appreciate how lucky they are to have each other.

Knowledge and evidence:

• The novel starts with Dante alone as he waits for his A-level results:

  • His dreams of university include an escape from where he is now:

    • He’s thinking of taking off and flying away

  • On an important day in his young life, he is not surrounded by family or even thinking about sharing this big moment with his family

• The mentions of family here are negative:

  • He bemoans his dad’s negative “life lessons”

  • He then talks about he could make money so that his family could go on holiday, something they have not done in years:

    • This paints a picture of a family that is lacking, whether it be the money to go away or the desire to do such a thing together, especially at expense

• When we first meet Adam, his dad is unaware he has been having headaches for days, and that he picked up a head injury playing sport:

  • The family are not talking about their days and sharing news

• Adam is uncomfortable with hospitals and doctors due to family trauma:

  • The death of his and Dante’s mother when the boys were young has left Adam scared of medical services, after seeing his mother suffer within them as she battled cancer

• Melanie’s struggles come from being alone and abandoned by her family:

  • She is unable to cope alone, showing how isolation weakens us

• Dante’s reluctance to face up to Emma and fatherhood goes beyond the fear of a young man:

  • Whilst this is a life changing moment, Dante’s rejection of Emma as family may come from his lack of interest in his own:

    • His connection to his family is weak, reluctant rather than embraced, so he does not feel drawn to Emma just because they are family

    • The idea of family is not one of loyalty and devotion, but expectation

    • Just as he doesn’t feel instant warmth and love when thinking of his dad and brother, the same feeling doesn’t come quickly with Emma

• Their father, Tyler, can be dismissive of the boys, and whilst he is comfortable with criticism and hard truths, he is not forthcoming with positivity or love:

  • He shows very little sympathy to Dante once he learns about Emma, thinking him reckless and immature:

    • This is a reflection of his life, and his disappointment at how he missed out on many things by becoming a reluctant young father

  • He quickly criticises Dante after the assault on Adam, even though he likely doesn’t mean it:

    • He is a man uncomfortable sharing his emotions, and so his fear for his son is turned to anger as Dante becomes someone he can blame

• Adam’s sexuality also shows the strain on their family:

  • Dante and Tyler are not outright homophobic, but their lack of support and desire to pretend it isn’t there is the kind of hidden homophobia that can cause people to feel shame and become isolated

  • But when Adam is attacked for his sexuality, they are angered by the blatant homophobia and forced to examine their behaviour towards him:

    • They immediately gather around Adam with protective intention, and we see Dante confront not just his feelings towards and his treatment of Adam and his sexuality, but also the negative language he has used with his brother

• Emma is the catalyst that brings them together:

  • Before they start to embrace their family unit again, they all individually show love to Emma:

    • Adam is immediately natural and loving with her, Tyler overspends as he becomes a doting grandfather in an instant, and Dante grows into a proper father

  • Tyler starts to protect his son by looking out for the needs of his granddaughter, and maybe seeing Dante struggle in ways he did as a young father

  • Adam and Tyler both feel for Dante, although they struggle to tell him or show him explicitly

  • Dante soon realises his father is giving up his time and showing him warmth, having taken it for granted early on with Emma

• While Emma is the one who helps them all to change, it is Aunt Jackie who makes both Tyler and Dante see it clearly:

  • By confronting Tyler about his treatment of her sister, Jackie forces Tyler to see how he has behaved and how it has made both his wife and his children feel

  • She tells both Dante and Tyler to actually tell their family how they feel, rather than just assuming that they would know:

    • After Tyler tells Dante he is proud of him and loves him, Dante feels better, and feels closer to his father

    • Jackie uses this as proof to Dante to show that he should tell Adam the same thing, and it is when he does this that Adam starts to recover

• Dante is used to thinking about himself and his future, and relying on his intelligence to help him meet his ambitions:

  • With Emma, he cannot focus on just what he wants, and he does not have the knowledge to battle his way through it alone

  • He does not like asking for help, but is given no choice as he struggles in fatherhood:

    • The support he gets from his father slowly helps Dante to see what can be achieved when you are open to others

• Dante is impressed by how Tyler and Jackie both show up for him and Adam:

  • Jackie is there in an instant when Adam is hurt, which Dante notices and is impressed by, maybe showing him learning what family is about

  • Dante sees his dad skipping work and calling every hour to check on him, and realises that his family love him

• In contrast to the opening, the novel finishes with the family together, with the three who had started the story now with baby Emma and their Aunt Jackie

What is Blackman’s intention?

• Blackman shows the importance of family in this story:

  • Dante, Melanie and Adam are all lesser without the support of their family

  • All three suffer when they are isolated, whether by choice or not:

    • Dante cannot raise Emma alone, and only survives because his father props him up

    • Melanie gives away her baby with great reluctance and pain because she has been unable to raise her all alone

    • Adam hides from his family, whether it’s his head injury, his relationship, or withdrawing to his room once injured

  • In the end, redemption for Dante and Adam comes from the love and support of family

• She also shows how Tyler is redeemed by the love of his family:

  • The negativity he feels and expresses is stripped away once his sons show they love him and need him

  • Equally, by embracing his love for them, he is happier and warmly welcomed by them because he tells them he loves them

• Blackman shows us that the love and acceptance of family improves our lives:

  • The happiest we see all three of them is when they are sharing experiences together

  • They rarely laugh or smile alone, or even with friends, but they come together through the story and slowly share more moments of happiness and joy, until the ending shows they are happy and supported as a family unit

• We also see that giving love and support can improve us, not just receiving it:

  • By showing each other love and acceptance, barriers come down and they receive love and acceptance back

• The author may also use the format of the book to show us how teenagers do not always see family relationships clearly:

  • The narration comes from both boys, both of whom have gone through major trauma of losing their mother

  • Tyler talks repeatedly about how hard it is for his sons to have grown away from him, to have lost interest in spending time with him and how they find him embarrassing:

    • The boys do not recognise this, merely thinking it is their dad being negative and critical, not realising their father is alone and has been hurt by losing the bond he had with his sons

  • As they talk about only his negativity and criticism, we see that as the truth, but it may just be the perspective of the children and the unreliable narration of events

The weight of expectation

Most of the characters in the story are weighed down by expectations. Tyler, Dante and Adam find their dreams pushed aside by their consequences, and feel like failures as what they dreamed of and hoped for is torn away from them. As they see these dreams slipping away, being unable to meet their own expectations wears them down.

There are then the expectations placed on many characters by societal norms and stereotypes.  Adam and Josh face shame and hate for their sexuality, Dante and Melanie both face shame for disappointing family who expected more. 

Knowledge and evidence:

• Dante has high expectations for himself:

  • He sees himself as incredibly intelligent and ready to do great things because of it

• It is this future he planned for himself that makes it hard for him to accept Emma:

  • He sees her as in his way, an obstacle limiting his life

• As far as Dante is concerned, things like this don’t happen to people like him:

  • With this attitude, he is comfortable looking at ways out of fatherhood, whether it’s adoption, fostering, or a DNA result that gets him off the hook

  • He rarely considers the moral implications of these actions

  • On the occasions when he does think giving Emma up might be cruel, he justifies the idea to himself as being fair as it gets him back to the destiny he has designed for himself

• Tyler’s disappointment with Dante comes from the expectations he had for Dante:

  • Dante was the smart one, the sensible one, and Tyler expected him to fulfil that promise

• These feelings also come from Tyler’s disappointment in his own life:

  • He expected to go on and do more, but had to put his dreams aside to raise Dante

  • Tyler’s expectations for himself have not only harmed his relationship with his wife and made him bitter, but they are also now making him treat Dante more harshly because he is angry at what happened to himself 

• The expectations of masculinity, from the characters and wider society, leave Adam’s sexuality shunned in his own household:

  • His father and brother do not show him any support, instead trying to squash and ignore his homosexuality

  • They expect him to fit around their needs, not his own

  • They expect men to be straight and act in ways that they’re comfortable with

• The teenage boys that Dante is friends with also expect Adam to act how they want:

  • They are more blatantly homophobic, and not shy about it

• One reason Adam is left depressed after his attack is that he wants to be an actor:

  • Now that his face is scarred, he feels he cannot make it due to expectations of appearance

  • Whereas Dante has been known for his intelligence and academic ability, Adam is known for his looks and charm, both of which he feels are now diminished:

    • As he characterises himself by them, losing them crushes his expectations of who he is

• Dante feels some pressure of masculine expectations when confronted with the aftermath of Adam’s assault:

  • His instinct is to fight, and to make sure that Adam’s assailants suffer physical punishment from his hands:

    • This comes from the feeling that men should fight and show physical strength

  • Equally, his father expects him to have protected his younger brother, ignoring that this was unrealistic in this instance:

    • Tyler is reinforcing the idea that men react physically and suggesting these expectations are passed down across generations

What is Blackman’s intention?

• Blackman consistently shows across the text that our expectations of others can harm them:

  • An example is Tyler’s expectations of Dante, which cause Dante to resent his father and continues the breakdown of their relationship

• The writer also explores the expectation of straight sexuality for men, and how this can lead to isolation and shame:

  • Tyler and Dante’s expectation is that Adam should hide his sexuality to make them feel more comfortable

• Blackman uses Tyler to show how regret from unmet expectations can poison our lives and relationships:

  • Tyler’s resentment of having his life changed by an unwanted pregnancy at a young age is felt by Dante

  • He cuts an angry figure at times, and is bitter about his sons growing up and growing away from him

• It could be argued that Blackman builds this aspect of his character to show how he expected to be rewarded for being a single dad and sticking with an unwanted situation:

  • When he sees Dante making the same “mistakes” he did, he becomes angry, weighing his son down with his own unmet expectations

• Josh’s own sexuality does not meet with his expectations of masculinity:

  • He admonishes himself and spirals into a shameful depression that sees him angry and aggressive with others to cover for it

  • In the end, he realises that everything he feared would happen if people found out he was gay only happens because he can’t accept it himself

  • Adam is a victim of Josh’s expectations of himself just like Dante is a victim of Tyler’s

• The brief scene where Dante is shamed in public may be Blackman’s way of shaming us for how we treat young parents:

  • Not only does the woman immediately assume he is on benefits, but also that he is taking money from her by using the state to cover his mistake

  • This shows how society alienates and demonises young parents as wrong and lesser, and a suggestion that people on benefits are guilty of something

Responsibility

Responsibility is a key theme in Boys Don’t Cry as Malorie Blackman explores social issues like parenting, teen pregnancies, sex and health. The story looks at our responsibilities to ourselves, to others, to society, and to the vulnerable. 

As a young adult novel, Blackman knows she is writing for an impressionable audience, and looks to speak with the experience and wisdom of an adult whilst writing about issues that will resonate with her young audience. 

Knowledge and evidence:

• From the outset of the novel, Dante is faced with what a lack of responsibility can bring:

  • By having unprotected sex, Dante is not being responsible, ignoring the possible unintended consequences of his actions

  • In doing so, Dante shows he may not have been mature enough to engage in sex, ignoring his responsibilities because he wants to have fun

• The reason he is so shaken and scared of being a father is because he understands that it is a huge responsibility:

  • Even before Melanie leaves Emma with him, Dante is now aware he has some responsibility for Emma’s care and future, and that will last for years, maybe the rest of his life

  • He is aware that it will change his life because he knows that he now cannot do whatever he wants, as he now has responsibility for someone else

• We very quickly see him try to get out of this responsibility:

  • He looks for others to take the responsibility from him, whether that be through adoption or fostering

  • He also looks to see if he and Emma are actually related, as a negative DNA test will absolve him of the responsibility

• The weight of that responsibility is understood by society as he is shamed in public:

  • This is because a young pregnancy is seen as irresponsible, and people believe him not responsible enough to look after a child

• Tyler immediately demands Dante face what is happening and get on with it:

  • The importance of responsibility is not lost on Tyler, who had to do the same, even though he also didn’t want to

  • He gives Dante no time to dwell on his woes, immediately buying baby gear and leaving Dante to look after Emma

  • This continues throughout the story, with Tyler making it clear that Dante cannot just leave Emma with him and go about his usual social life, as we see with the end of year drinks that Dante eventually takes Emma to

• The pressure of responsibility is what forces Melanie to give Emma up:

  • She has been suffocated by the responsibility of motherhood without any help

  • She is left isolated by her family as they see it as her responsibility to deal with the consequences of the pregnancy, not theirs

• By abandoning Melanie, her family also show a lack of responsibility:

  • She is still their teenage daughter, and this shows they are not fully equipped to be parents

• Whilst Tyler impresses upon Dante the importance of responsibility, he fails in his own:

  • By not showing his sons outward love and warmth, he helps the family drift apart and raises two boys uncomfortable with expressing their feelings

• Slowly, Dante accepts his responsibilities and starts to prioritise Emma without thinking about it:

  • He doesn’t even consider going out for his 18th birthday until he is told to, showing his character development

  • He gives up his place at university because it won’t work with being a father to a young child

• By the end, he realises violent revenge for Adam is irresponsible because he has a daughter at home who needs him:

  • This shows his change from the young man who had unprotected sex without thought of the consequences, to someone who ignores the desire to seek revenge because that is not as important as his daughter

• The book also highlights the responsibility we have towards others:

  • Adam and Josh are both isolated in different ways due to homophobia:

    • Adam is told to be less himself by his family, suggesting being gay is somehow wrong

    • Josh’s outcomes would be different if society was not hostile to homosexuality

  • Dante realises that he has ingrained homophobia and needs to do better

What is Blackman’s intention?

• Malorie Blackman shows Dante looking for DNA results as something secret and shameful:

  • This could be her trying to tell the audience that this behaviour is wrong as he is trying to ignore his responsibilities 

• The author also contrasts Melanie’s and Dante’s parents:

  • Melanie’s family abandon her, and she abandons her child, and the family are torn apart:

    • Now their child is gone and they do not get to enjoy the love and warmth of their granddaughter

  • Dante and his family take Emma in and embrace her presence, supporting each other:

    • Their reward is that the family grows closer and share more love than ever before

    • Emma is no longer a burden, but another person they get to love

• We are also shown how behaviour can be copied, and that our choices have consequences:

  • Blackman shows us that Melanie’s family refuse to take responsibility for Melanie and Emma:

    • This suggests that Melanie copies the irresponsible example she is given, and her choice is a consequence of her family’s choices

• Across the story, Blackman highlights different types of responsibility:

  • It is more explicit in things like parenting

  • She also explores the responsibility we have for how we make people feel:

    • This is highlighted in how Tyler makes Dante feel, how Tyler and Dante make Adam feel, and how society makes Josh feel

  • Blackman could be using this to show how there are different types of consequence for not taking responsibility

• She also shows that we need to take more responsibility for what we don’t do:

  • Tyler and Dante don’t insult Adam’s sexuality so feel they aren’t part of the problem

  • Equally, Dante ignores much of Josh and Logan’s behaviour because it doesn’t affect him directly:

    • Whilst they are not perpetrators or abusive, they enable the environment through their inactivity 

  • This all allows Blackman to make the point that we have a responsibility to society and to others to do more:

    • We may feel we are not guilty, but by doing nothing we contribute to a world where others feel empowered to do the things we wouldn’t

Identity and judgement

Boys Don’t Cry deals with issues surrounding identity, be that through the homophobia faced by Adam, Josh’s shame and fear about who he is, or even just how Dante struggles with his change of circumstances. Characters in the book reject the identities of others and themselves. 

We also see how people judge others, making snap judgements based on stereotypes and prejudices, and how Dante faces being looked at and seen differently as his situation changes. 

Knowledge and evidence:

• Sexual identity is a key component of Blackman’s story:

  • How Josh and Adam feel about their sexuality is very different, with Josh full of shame and Adam comfortable and confident within himself:

    • When Josh and Adam are alone, they build a close bond and become something akin to a couple 

  • Josh’s shame with his own sexuality sees him take out his frustrations on Adam:

    • He hates him both due ingrained prejudices and being envious of Adam’s confidence in the face of his lack of confidence

• How some in society react to homosexuality plays a part in both Adam and Josh’s stories:

  • Josh assumes he will lose friends and family because he’s gay, which sends him into a spiral that leads to shame and violence

  • Adam is the victim of this, a target of homophobic abuse by Josh and Logan, and then the punching bag for Josh after the pressures he feels erupt within him

• Adam could easily have fallen into a similar spiral as Josh, with his family not accepting his sexuality:

  • Whilst neither Tyler nor Dante is abusive, they treat his sexuality as an issue, a negative trait that should be ignored and silenced:

    • By calling it a “phase”, Dante is showing both ignorance and homophobia, as it shows that he expects it not to be permanent

    • Adam, thankfully, is strong enough to be saddened but not ashamed when he hears this

    • However, his lack of reaction also shows that it is likely this is something he has had to get used to in his home 

• It is only when faced with Josh kissing him that Dante realises he is homophobic and needs to change;

  • Whilst this realisation is positive, it highlights how some people need to be confronted with their prejudices in order to change their opinions

• Adam’s identity is nearly crushed by the attack:

  • There are two strains to this. The first relates to how he sees the world:

    • This shows him fears: that he can be attacked merely for being gay

    • This punctures the feeling of safety and security we all should have to live our lives, as he is attacked for just being who he is

  • The other is that he sees himself as an attractive and charismatic person, and the injuries to his face change how he sees himself:

    • This leads him into depression, as he loses his sense of self

• Dante’s identity is tied to his intelligence and ambition:

  • Once Emma arrives, he can only think about saving his planned future, because his ambition is who he is

  • This is reinforced by his father, who seems ashamed of Dante because he thought him too smart to make the same mistake he did

• Later, we see how he is judged by a woman in his local store after she realises he is a young father:

  • Her instinct is not only that this is wrong, and shows poor character, but she then attributes it to being unemployed:

    • She suggests he is on benefits, and signifies that she sees this as a negative, showing almost disgust and personal affront at the possibility he’s taking her tax money

    • This also highlights the way people who need help from the state are judged by others

    • This is an example of class politics in the UK, which are often seen as far more divisive than in other countries

• Tyler’s problems with his own identity are reflected onto his sons:

  • He feels his life was limited by becoming a father at a young age

  • As a man who felt he could go on to great things individually, he has not taken pride or shown to his sons the joy of being a father:

    • This leads him to be annoyed at Dante, who is smart, for throwing away the chances that he himself didn’t get

What is Blackman’s intention?

• The book explores how we can hurt those around us, whether they are loved ones, members of our community, or even ourselves, by dismissing and rejecting key parts of their and our identities

• Blackman highlights the damage of homophobia, from the quieter actions of the Bridgeman family, to homophobic abuse, showing us how LGBTQ+ people can be seen and treated:

  • She presents homophobia as a negative trait throughout the novel, with Dante looking foolish and ignorant when he tries to ignore Adam’s sexuality

  • More prominently, Logan and Josh are presented as nasty, ugly characters who are offensive and demeaning, but also childish, aggressive and mean:

    • The only times Josh is presented favourably is when he is being comfortably himself, alone with Adam, and when he apologises in the letter to Adam

    • Logan is always seen as a nasty figure, and never has a redeeming moment

  • Tyler and Dante are annoyed that Adam is going out without giving them any information, and Dante is shocked to find Adam has kept his relationship with Josh from him:

    • This is a really effective way of showing how treating his sexuality as wrong leaves Adam with nobody at home to talk to, which means he also has nobody to share any concerns with about Josh’s behaviour 

  • Josh’s actions are caused by the pressure he feels from being gay, wanting to hide it and being ashamed to the point of aggression:

    • This comes from a society that pushes gay people to feel lesser and unsafe

    • Here, Blackman shows us how we create shame for people like Josh, who are unsure of their sexuality and desperately don’t want to be gay, because of the stigma others attach to it

• The author also shows us how society judges people and puts them in boxes:

  • We see how being gay is “wrong”, and how men may mock it and attack it if their own sense of masculinity feels threatened 

  • Dante is seen as “wrong”, and Blackman shows us how people connect one characteristic — here, a young father — and extrapolate that to negative connotations of status and wealth, all based on their own stereotypes and prejudices:

    • The woman is kind until she hears Emma is his child, showing that her ignorance comes from her own ideas of behaviour in society

• Blackman shows us how Adam, Josh and Dante are all hurt by how they are, or might be viewed, and none of which is about who they are or how they act:

  • She highlights the dangers of this, showing how it isolates Josh and Adam, and how it hurts Dante:

    • Dante feels more comfortable telling people Emma is his little sister, as then he gets positive reactions

• The story also highlights the danger that viewing ourselves in a narrow way can hamper us:

  • Dante is the “smart” one, and loses his perspective when he feels that he can no longer be or be seen as that

  • Josh’s identity crisis leads him to violence, nearly killing Adam and ending up in jail because of it

  • Adam nearly dies after he falls into depression having lost his grip on his own identity 

Sources

Blackman, M. (2010). Boys Don’t Cry. Random House.