36 pages • 1 hour read
Laura Schroff, Alex TresniowskiAn Invisible Thread: The True Story of an 11-Year-Old Panhandler, a Busy Sales Executive, and an Unlikely Meeting with Destiny
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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The Bike
Schroff’s gift of a brand-new red bike is an important one to Maurice. It gives him a chance to have something in common with Annette’s kids, who share their bike with Maurice when he comes to visit them in the suburbs. Schroff and Maurice both know he can’t take it back to the welfare motel where he lives, but they assume he can safely ride it around Midtown. However, a teen thug cons Maurice into “lending it” to him for just a quick ride. Maurice is too embarrassed to tell Schroff the truth—that as streetwise as he is, he fell for an obvious scam and had the bike stolen from him. While bicycles are classic childhood staples in the Long Island suburb, they are not items generally afforded the poor children in New York. While Schroff extends a gesture of Maurice’s acceptance into her world—of privilege and safety—the bike does not belong in the dangerous world Maurice is accustomed to. The bike is a symbol of both Schroff and Maurice’s naivete, as well as both of their desires to reconcile their different worlds.
The Big Table
Maurice is amazed by many details of Annette’s house. He likes their yard outback with a swing set in it as well as their giant front yard, which practically looks like a park to him. But most of all, Maurice admires the big table, the dining room table where the family sits around to eat and talk. The idea of shared meals and conversation is new to Maurice, and he resolves to have a big table of his own when he’s an adult. The table is a symbol of stability and family community, both important aspects of childhood that Maurice lacks. This experience helps to reshape his worldview, and here he first expresses the concept of his own future. As an adult, he achieves his dream of having a family and a big table—a dream which he then invites Schroff to join in on.
The Brown Paper Bag
Schroff realizes that the only day Maurice has a reliable meal is the day they dine together. She then decides that she needs to give some thought on how to address his food insecurity during the rest of the week. She offers to pack him a school lunch, and Maurice is delighted with this plan. He makes one special request, that she put the food in a brown paper bag with his name on it. This, to Maurice, is a clear sign that someone cares about him. The brown paper lunch symbolizes parental care as well as stability in basic life essentials. In this gesture, Schroff accepts her role as Maurice’s surrogate mother and only true parental figure.
Baseball Glove
Frank’s worn baseball glove is his prized possession. The glove brings him peace and satisfaction, whether he is having a catch or simply holding it. The mitt is almost a talisman for him. When his father drunkenly and savagely rips it to shreds, it is more than an object that he loses. He also loses that which makes him feel anchored to something positive in achaotic home. Schroff recollects how the baseball mitt, and the game itself, brought Frank a sense of stability. Schroff then wishes to extend this idea to Maurice when she tells him she wants to take him to a game. Maurice has never seen nor considered seeing a live baseball game, as such luxuries are not afforded impoverished children. Schroff sees Maurice as more than just some street beggar, and her drawn parallels between Frank and Maurice solidify the development of Maurice as family to her.
