The novel depicts a violent and traumatic school shooting, an incident that has unfortunately become commonplace in contemporary American society. These events have occurred with greater frequency and higher casualty rates in the United States than anywhere else, an have drawn a significant amount of public attention since the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado. The relative frequency of school shootings in the United States has led to significant discussion of how best to prevent these violent tragedies from occurring.
Some notable school shootings with high casualties include the 1999 Columbine School shooting (which left 13 people dead), the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, and the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Perpetrators of school shootings in the United States have tended to be young, white males. While extensive research has been done, it has proven difficult to fully determine the factors that make an individual likely to engage in a school shooting. Some, but not all, individuals who perpetrate a school shooting have experienced bullying. Typically, shootings are found to have been premeditated and to have involved extensive advance planning. In some cases, individuals may work with accomplices, or inform others of their plans beforehand. Particularly in the wake of the 1999 Columbine shootings, there have also been attempts to link school shootings to the consumption of violent media, including video games, movies, and music. However, this connection has never been conclusively supported.
In the novel, the shooting at Bradley is linked to a number of factors, including the bullying of Ben and Arthur, as well as Arthur's own emotional struggles in the wake of his dad's departure. One could argue that the novel espouses a philosophy in favor of the regulation of firearms, evidenced by the fact that Arthur has easy access to one of his father's guns. Ultimately, however, the novel focuses more on the tragic circumstances leading up to the shooting and the tragic aftermath that leaves many students dead and even more injured, both physically and emotionally. In depicting a school shooting as one of the traumatic events of Ani's past, the novel suggests that this once-rare occurrence is tragically becoming more and more common among young people in America.
