57 pages • 1 hour read
Al Capone Shines My Shoes
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaThemes
The Nature of Celebrity and Notoriety
In Al Capone Shines My Shoes, Al Capone appears as a representation of the nature of celebrity and notoriety. While Capone is famous as the island’s most notorious prisoner, Moose must deal with the complex nature of Capone’s personality and behavior: While the gangster is sometimes charming and kind, there is also a hint of menace just below the surface.
Moose’s direct dealings with Capone leave him with mixed feelings about Capone. On one hand, Capone appears an attractive and alluring person. When Moose asks him to help Natalie get into the specialist school for neurodivergent children, Capone obliges. Moose later meets Capone in person twice in the novel. During the first visit, Capone humbly offers to shine Moose’s and his father’s shoes and behaves in a very complimentary and gracious manner toward Moose. Moose is starstruck by this encounter, even telling his father afterward that he would vote for Capone as president. In the second encounter, Capone is cradling Darby’s missing baby. Capone treats the baby with tenderness, presenting himself as trustworthy and well-meaning.
There is, however, another and much darker side to Capone. Moose witnesses Capone spitting into the food prepared for the guests of honor at the banquet, including the food of the man who put Capone behind bars. The spitting shows Capone’s petty and vengeful side. Capone’s reputation for violence and mercilessness also unnerves Moose: When he receives the note from Capone demanding payback for the favor, he immediately understands that Capone could harm him in some way if he does not comply. Even during their seemingly friendly encounters, Capone sometimes shows glimpses of a more dangerous side: He glares at Cam when Cam does not respond well to his offers, and he drops hints to Moose about what Moose owes him. This other side of Capone reminds Moose that Capone is a gangster who still has immense power, even while in prison.
The novel’s open-ended conclusion does not offer any definitive answers about Capone or about how the dynamic between Moose and Capone will continue to unfold in the Tales from Alcatraz series (See: Background). However, Al Capone Shines My Shoes does establish Capone’s complex characterization: As someone both charming and sinister, powerful yet imprisoned, Capone represents for Moose the dark allure of the criminal underworld, and he serves as a constant reminder to Moose that people may not always be quite as they seem.
The Dangers of Moral Compromises
In Al Capone Shines My Shoes, Moose Flanagan’s father cautions him against accepting favors, even seemingly harmless ones, from smart cons like Al Capone: “Starts innocent enough. He shines your shoes. Pretty soon, he wants something for his efforts […] Well, you owe him now” (73). All gifts and favors bestowed by people like Capone are transactional, and the “payback” could be dangerous. Cam’s warning reflects the novel’s exploration of the dangers of moral compromises.
Out of desperation to help his sister, Moose has made a dangerous moral compromise by bargaining with a powerful but unscrupulous figure who may well demand from him more than he can afford to lose. Gradually, Moose realizes that by asking Capone for help, he has compromised not only himself but his whole family. As Annie warns him after finding Al Capone’s note, “if anyone found out you did a favor for Al Capone, your dad would be fired” (17-18). In the Great Depression, jobs are scarce: Cam’s firing would force the family to leave Alcatraz, and likely impoverish them. In any case, it would mean the end of Natalie’s hopes of remaining at the Esther P. Marinoff School. By putting the fate of his family in the hands of Al Capone, Moose is risking the family’s security and future.
Al Capone’s request, when it comes, suggests that he may indeed be playing “cat and mouse” with Moose. His request appears simple: Moose’s errand is to present Capone’s wife with yellow roses when she boards the Alcatraz ferry. This is, however, harder than it looks. Under the hawklike gaze of the press, the prison guards, and the warden himself, Moose must conceal his favor to Capone so as not to attract the slightest suspicion. In the event, he rises to the challenge and succeeds, but he understands that he is not free of Capone’s influence: There is always the chance Capone will ask for something else.
At the novel’s end, Moose is more aware of the dangers of such compromises. He tells his father the truth about the bar spreader, and his father assures him that the family can always get through problems by doing the right thing. This ending suggests that, while Moose is not yet entirely free of Capone’s influence, he is nevertheless more aware of just how complicated and dangerous moral compromises can be. His act of truth-telling implies that, sooner or later, Moose may find a way to break away from Capone for good.
Friendship and Trust in Challenging Settings
In the isolated island community of Al Capone Shines My Shoes, a strong network of friends is an invaluable resource for many of its residents. Twelve-year-old Moose Flanagan is particularly reliant on his friends and works hard to keep them all in his corner. Throughout the narrative, Moose must navigate the complications of friendship and trust in challenging settings.
The pressures on Moose are enormous. He worries about his neurodivergent sister Natalie, who needs constant watching. Perhaps worst of all, Moose has indebted himself to the most dangerous man on Alcatraz, Al Capone. Throughout the novel, Moose navigates the dilemma of keeping his debt to Capone a secret from his friends, while relying on them for support in the face of the pressures on himself and his family. Fearing their reactions if they find out about Capone, Moose invites unforeseen consequences: Annie, who discovers his note from Capone by accident, explodes at him for his lack of trust in her; and Piper, misunderstanding his actions on the ferry, fumes that he gave Mae Capone and other girls roses while saving none for her.
Moose’s Alcatraz friends all deal with some of the same stresses—e.g., isolation, and the hazards of living so close to a prison population—and much of the support they offer each other comes in the form of simple distractions, notably baseball. As Moose notes, “There’s nothing like baseball to get your mind off of things you’d rather not think about” (9). His dependence on baseball as a distraction, however, threatens his close friendship with Jimmy, who accuses him of disrespecting him because of his lackluster skills in the game, in favor of a visiting school friend. Jimmy also berates him for hiding his true feelings in order to be liked and to “keep everybody happy” (77)—an accusation repeated by Piper, who resents his attention toward others, such as Theresa. Despite Moose’s desire for the respect and support of his friends, placating them becomes a juggling act.
Nevertheless, Moose and his friends need each other and ultimately learn to work as a team. Theresa helps care for Natalie by engaging her in games; Jimmy helps Moose with disposing of the bar spreader that Natalie brought to Alcatraz; and Piper offers him an insider’s view of the island’s secrets. Finally, in the novel’s climax, Jimmy, Theresa, Annie, and even Janet Trixle all come to the rescue of Moose, his sister, and Piper, when they are abducted by convicts. In the throes of a crisis, all the Alcatraz friends put aside their petty differences and come together as never before, strengthening their bonds in the end.
Unlock all 57 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Related Titles
By Gennifer Choldenko
