Bud, Not Buddy

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1999

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-16

Chapters 17-19

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Vocabulary

Essay Topics

Quiz

Symbols & Motifs

Personal Possessions

Bud establishes early on that he associates possessions with maturity and responsibility. While other children in the Home must use cloth or paper bags to keep their few things in, he says, “I have my own suitcase” (6). The items in the suitcase provide Bud with memories of the home he once had, the wise words of his mother, and information, he believes, regarding his father. Bud cares for his suitcase well, making sure his possessions are well-tended in his absence; he does this at the library, while washing dishes in Hooverville, when he must run for the train, and when he meets Mr. Lewis. His sense of responsibility for his possessions shows the maturity and wisdom gained early from four years without his mother. Later, he accepts the ownership of a new “suitcase” (Steady Eddie’s old saxophone case), a recorder, and a used saxophone. His acceptance of these gifts and his promises to devote time to learning both music and a musician’s lifestyle show Bud’s eagerness for stability and personal growth.

Names and Naming

The motifs of names and naming is related to the theme of “Honesty Is a Complex Virtue.” Throughout the story, characters strive to show a higher truth or an abundance of truth through naming. For example, Bud is used to the polite, repeated insistence that his name is Bud, not Buddy. He recalls that Momma thought of the name “Buddy” as one dishonest people might use on a person: “I knew what I was doing, Buddy is […] a name that someone’s going to use on you if they’re being false-friendly” (41). Later, he is “dubbed” with another truthful name, aptly chosen for his appearance and behavior: Sleepy LaBone. In this way, names associate identity with truthfulness, and readers see that though Bud lies occasionally, he is an honest character who demonstrates transcendence to a higher truth.

The band members’ chosen nicknames represent their respective characters’ honestly as well. Bud likes the stability and calm demeanor of “Steady Eddie,” whereas he knows he cannot trust Doug “the Thug” when Doug tells Bud to shower Mr. Calloway with affection. Also, Mr. Calloway’s band changes its name to better suit the setting and audience in the time and place where they perform. Bud feels that a more truthful name for the band would showcase Miss Thomas’s talents: “With the first thing she sang, you had to wonder why this band was called Herman E. Calloway and Dusky Devastators of the Depression, or Herman E. Calloway and the Nubian Knights, it should be called Miss Thomas and the Dusky Devastators of the Depression and a Mean Old Guy on the Giant Fiddle” (202). Buddy’s shows that names can distill the truth of one’s character, though they can also be manipulated to suit one’s own needs. For example, Bud’s momma went by a false name, Caldwell, which made her impossible to locate when she ran away from Mr. Calloway.

Finally, the book repeatedly mentions the Hoovervilles, shantytowns in the Depression-era, which are named for President Hoover, whose policies failed to provide relief from the economic hardships of the time. A Hooverville appears not just in one location, but in many, making it easy to associate the President with hard times throughout the entire country. B

Symbols of Home

Symbols of home support the theme “Seeking a Better Life,” especially the home and family situation Bud hopes to attain when he meets his father. For most of the story, Bud must carry his “home” with him in the form of important objects in his suitcase. His flyers and rocks first symbolize the home she provided to Bud, as he associates them with his memories of Momma; later, readers realize that the flyers and rocks also symbolize the home Momma left and recalls as a young woman. Bud symbolically returns the flyers and rocks to Mr. Calloway at the end of the story, indicating his sense of security and contentment at Grand Calloway Station; he no longer has to carry those objects to feel “at home.”

The brown sugar offers a small taste of what a home might offer to Bud; his “pretend” mother gives him a sprinkle over his oatmeal at the mission. The Sleet’s dining room is another symbol of home and family time; Bud is impressed that “the Sleets had a room for eating and it had a great big table right in the middle of it” (121). For Bud, these simple markers of domestic life connect to his search for a stable and loving home.