“He needed your love then. Not now that he’s in the ground.”

Regret is one of the central themes of the novel. Ike and Buddy Lee are constantly reminded that they should have loved their sons more, but now it is too late. Mya’s words sting Ike, especially because he knows that she is right. The story includes constant reminders of Ike and Buddy Lee’s failings.

“Tears ran from his eyes and stung his cheeks. Tears for his son. Tears for his wife. Tears for the little girl they had to raise. Tears for who they were and what they all had lost. Each drop felt like it was slicing his face open like a razorblade.”

When Ike cries at the beginning of the novel, the tears are painful and cutting. He has never allowed himself to cry for his son, and now that he is, he grieves his failings as a father. When Ike cries at the end of the novel, the tears have a cleansing property, like rain. There is something hopeful in his tears, like the relief that a penitent might feel. Cosby uses a simile, where something is compared to something else with “like” or “as.” In this case, he compares the raindrops to a razorblade. He also uses repetition. Beginning multiple sentences with “Tears” creates a sense of emphasis, an accumulating sense of loss.