All The Lovely Bad Ones

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2008

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-10

Chapters 11-15

Chapters 16-20

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Quiz

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Discussion Questions

Themes

Good Versus Bad and Evil

The title of the novel, All the Lovely Bad Ones, highlights the prominence of the theme Good versus Bad throughout the text. Hahn makes clear that definitions of good and bad are inherently subjective. These subjective labels can differ drastically from context to context and character to character. Travis thinks, “There was no denying it. We were bad ones, always in trouble—but not wicked” (156). The mischievous children in the text are frequently called “bad” by the adults in their life, however, their badness is often synonymous with playfulness and naughtiness. Hahn differentiates between the different meanings of bad quite clearly. In relation to the children, Mrs. Brewster says about Travis and Corey, “They’re a pair of bad ones themselves, full of sass and mischief just like Seth here” (156). Through this lens, Hahn emphasizes that these children are only guilty of being lively, disobedient children. These supposedly bad children are definitely “not wicked.” Hahn suggests that it is wickedness that is equivalent to true badness.

Despite their badness, Travis and Corey are the main protagonists of the novel. Miss Ada with her “WICKED HEART” contrasts sharply with the children she loathes (138). Miss Ada insists to the children that “Whatever I did to you was your own fault […] You deﬁed me, you were never satisﬁed, never grateful. You made me punish you, you made me hurt you” (188). Miss Ada’s insistence that the children are the ones who are wicked displays how her perspective drastically skews the way she interprets the subjective definitions of good and bad. Miss Ada, firmly stuck in her selfishness, is unable to see how she is the one who must be punished for her deeds.

Hahn ensures that the readers realize the dramatic irony of Miss Ada’s character. Though they are proud of their title as the bad ones, the ghost children realize that Miss Ada is the true antagonist. They tell the siblings, “Bad, bad, bad. She was the bad one. Bad beyond telling, bad beyond belief” (101). Miss Ada’s wickedness comes from her inability to discern true goodness and badness; she blames her actions on the children instead of taking responsibility for them. Despite their age, the ghost children are incredibly wise, Caleb says of Miss Ada’s denial, “She beat us for her good […] Not ours” (104). The theme of good versus bad in the novel thus becomes especially clear as Hahn explicates the different shades of badness in relation to evil and wickedness.

Heteronormative Gender Roles

Written in 2008, All the Lovely Bad Ones contains the pervasive theme of heteronormative gender roles. Heteronormativity is a term that is often used in the field of Queer and Women’s studies. Heteronormative gender roles denote the belief that there are two opposite genders that are naturally associated with different traits and roles that match their sex. We see a simple example of the novel’s adherence to heteronormative gender roles in Hahn’s description of Mr. and Mrs. Brewster. Heteronormative gender roles imply that men are more suited for physical labor while women are better equipped for household chores. In Grandmother’s introduction of Mr. Brewster, she says to Travis and Corey, “But he totes luggage up and down the steps, ﬁxes everything that breaks, and keeps the grounds in shape” (21). These jobs that Mr. Brewster is responsible for are typically seen as jobs that are held by men.

In contrast, Grandmother highlights how Mrs. Brewster is “truly magniﬁcent in the kitchen” (9). In these two separate asides to the siblings, Grandmother already begins to reinforce the heteronormative gender roles at play in the novel. Upon Travis and Corey’s first arrival at the inn, Grandmother tells them, “Leave your luggage for now. Henry can bring it in later. Martha’s promised to have a pitcher of ice-cold lemonade, freshly squeezed, and a plateful of chocolate-chip cookies, still warm from the oven” (8), confirming the couples’ gender roles.

Aside from Mr. and Mrs. Brewster’s typified gender roles, Travis’s perspective in the text similarly offers several moments wherein it becomes clear that some characters in the text believe women to be lesser than men. When Tracy cries after encountering the ghost of Miss Ada and Grandmother tries to get her to stay and work at the inn, Travis “wanted to leap up and defend her, perhaps throw my arms around her and protect her, but I just sat there like a nincompoop” (90). Though the moment can be seen as one of sweet affection, this scene is followed by Travis’s declaration that everything Tracy sees is her imagination. Travis is driven to comfort Tracy by her tears, but he also wants to appear masculine, protective, and rational.

Tracy, however, is the only character who initially goes looking for the ghost at the grove in the middle of the night. Seth Tracy’s bravery to exemplify archaic views of gender roles and toxic masculinity when Travis is scared off by the idea of digging up Miss Ada’s coffin: “Ain’t you ashamed to be bested by a girl? You’re nothing but a sissiﬁed nancy boy” (162). In Seth’s eyes, being scared is a weakness, and weakness is connected to femininity. He continues to mock Travis, asking, “Where’s your dress? And your hair ribbons?” (162). These moments effectively portray heteronormative gender roles that are harmful not only to women but also to men. The stereotypes of what men and women are allowed to do in society are highly regulated and clearly reproduced even in works of art and literature for younger audiences.

The Injustice of Class Disparities

Injustice is a strong theme that runs throughout Hahn’s All the Lovely Bad Ones. Class disparities and economic hardships are an example of how this theme manifests in the text. Apart from Grandmother’s own economic struggles due to the inn’s lack of guests, the building’s history as a poor house inevitably summons the issue of class disparity to the forefront of the story.

In the vision that the ghost children show Travis and Corey, they see Miss Ada’s victims:

Gaunt, ragged people lined up for watery soup and hard bread. They worked outside in pouring rain and wind, in the cold of winter and the heat of summer. They shivered in dark, cold rooms. They went coatless and barefoot in the snow. They coughed and wheezed and sickened and died (118).

This paragraph details the suffering that the impoverished people at the poor farm were forced to undergo. In search of assistance after encountering difficult times, the people who came to the poor farm received neither sympathy nor actual assistance. Instead, like the Perkins, they were separated from their family, treated poorly, and forced to work in terrible conditions that ultimately led to their deaths. In contrast to how the people at the poor farm were treated, Mr. Jaggs and Miss Ada “[…] passed their days in warmth and comfort and dined on ﬁne food. They ordered beatings and whippings for the farm inhabitants and then slept soundly under feather quilts. They went to church in Sunday ﬁnery” (118). The sharp differences in how the overseers and the people at the poor farm conduct themselves display the innate problems in the system. The two overseers can take complete advantage of the system that favors them over “the detestable poor in their care” (118).

The ghost children themselves mention how they have been waiting endlessly for justice; Ira says that they have been “haunting the place we died, looking for justice, just like Hamlet’s father” (199). Through the symbolic haunting of the inn, Hahn establishes that the injustices of class disparities continue from the past and into the present.

Mrs. Brewster echoes this sentiment when she says, “The worst of it is, nothing’s changed. All you have to do is look around at the rich people getting fat on the poor. Even the government ain’t above it” (176). By connecting the past conditions of the poor farm to the present, Hahn levies commentary about the injustice of economic disparities in modern day. Hahn provides a simple solution to overcoming class injustice at the end of the novel. When the ghost children bring Grandmother the money that Mr. Jaggs hid away, she decides to donate the money. Grandmother tells him, “This money was stolen from the poor, and it must go back to the poor” (201). Class disparity and the injustices that the impoverished often face is thus a vital theme that the novel seeks to address.