Alcoholism
Depicted in its myriad causes and ramifications, alcoholism is a dominant theme in Shuggie Bain. Stuart introduces the theme subtly in the opening chapter, when the narrator casually comments that the sixteen-year-old Shuggie only pretends to drink the beers the older boarding-house resident offers him. In hindsight, the reader will realize that Shuggie avoids alcohol due to the prominent role alcoholism has played in his young life. From 1981 onward, Shuggie's mother Agnes's battle with alcoholism takes center stage in Shuggie's life. Stuart presents her drinking as consolation during the long nights she waits for her cheating husband to come home. However, in a flashback to a trip Agnes and Big Shug take to Blackpool, Shug comments with frustration on Agnes's drinking, a detail that suggests the problem precedes his cheating. As the story progresses, it becomes clear her drinking is part of the greater issue of dissatisfaction with her life, a lack of support, poverty, and a tendency toward self-destructiveness. When Shug abandons Agnes, her resentment fuels more drinking and acting out. Her condition isn't helped by the alcoholics and pill-pushers who keep her company in Pithead. Agnes eventually starts attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, a twelve-step recovery program that sees alcoholism as not a moral failing but a disease. Her sobriety ends when her new boyfriend, Eugene, pressures her into trying some wine with dinner, because he is prejudiced against alcoholics, who seem pathetic to him. The relapse the one drinks provokes leads Agnes into a spiral of binge drinking, self-pity, resentment, and attempted suicide. In the end, Shuggie concludes that he cannot save her from her alcoholism, and doesn't intervene when she chokes on her own bile.
Abandonment
As both a cause and a consequence of alcoholism, abandonment is another major theme in the novel. The theme of abandonment arises in overt and more insidious ways. In the first chapters of the 1981 section, Big Shug's open cheating is one of the ways he abandons Agnes, the wife to whom he pledged faithfulness. In a more overt sense of abandonment, the reader learns that Shug abandoned four children when he left his wife for Agnes. He had done so thinking she would abandon Catherine and Leek, but in the end she couldn't bring herself to leave her kids with her first husband. Agnes's abandonment of Brendan, Catherine and Leek's father, eventually leads him, in turn, to desert the children at an ice cream stand and disappear from their lives forever. Abandonment comes up again when Shug springs the news on Agnes that he is leaving her in Pithead to live with Joanie, the cab dispatcher. Alone with her children, Agnes finds that her self-destructive behavior and drinking prompt Catherine and Leek to abandon her as well. With Catherine moving to South Africa and Leek giving up on saving Agnes from herself, Agnes only has Shuggie to look after her. However, Shuggie too concludes that he cannot save his mother. When Shuggie goes to stay with Leek, he sees a healthier, less depressed version of his brother, observing that it did Leek good to leave their abusive mother.
Codependency
Codependency is a key theme in Shuggie Bain. Often associated with alcoholism and addiction, codependency is defined as an extreme or inappropriate level of emotional or psychological reliance on another person who needs support because of their illness or addiction. In a codependent relationship, there is a circular dynamic in which a "taker" depends on a "giver" for support while the giver feels validated by having the taker need them to make sacrifices. Codependency arises in the novel in Agnes's relationships with her sons. While her daughter Catherine steers clear of becoming involved in Agnes's addiction needs, Leek takes on responsibility for Agnes and Shuggie, declining an offer to go to art school as a teenager to work to support the household. Agnes's dependence on Leek eventually erupts in resentment when she kicks him out, at which point Leek gives up, leaving Shuggie to assume responsibility for their mother. As a child fiercely bonded to his mother despite her difficulties, Shuggie develops a codependent attachment, feeling purposeful when he skips school to help her recover from drinking binges and to make sure enablers in the housing scheme cannot get to her in the house. The stumbling block that both Leek and Shuggie come up against is their desire to control another person's behavior—a trait of codependents and children of alcoholics. Living amidst the chaos of their mother's addiction, both sons hope to rescue her and the family from the ruinous situation they find themselves in. However, both sons have to face the fact they do not have power over what their mother does.
Homophobia
Homophobia is another major theme in Shuggie Bain. A coming-of-age story, the novel depicts Shuggie's growing awareness of his homosexuality. Living in a world dominated by the prejudices of heterosexuals, Shuggie is teased for the effeminate way he moves his body and the way he parrots his mother's refined sayings. At a glance, many characters can tell he is not like most boys, and they jokingly refer to him as Liberace or a poof—a derogatory term for homosexuals. Shuggie experiences this treatment long before he reaches puberty or begins to conceive of himself as having a sexuality of any kind. His first sexual encounter happens with an older boy who first teases him for seeming like a poof and subsequently gets Shuggie to rub his genitalia. Because of the prejudice he faces, Shuggie attempts to mask his difference by memorizing the scores of football games and pretending to like a girl at school. Luckily, Leanne recognizes that Shuggie is gay but doesn't give him any grief over it, admitting that she herself isn't interested in the opposite sex. The novel ends on an optimistic note when Shuggie gives Leanne a twirl on the heels of his shoes, an image that suggests he accepts who he is and can be himself around her.
Poverty
Another key theme in the novel is poverty. As much as alcoholism is an issue in the lives of the book's characters, poverty affects how they live and the opportunities available. Living in Glasgow in the 1980s, a time when Margaret Thatcher's monetarist policies led to a lack of investment in heavy industries key to the Scottish economy, Shuggie's working-class family is surrounded by industrial decline and the societal misery it precipitates. For instance, in Pithead, a mining town in decline, Agnes finds miserable company with the wives of out-of-work miners, all of whom seek solace in drinking. Poverty also limits the choices characters can make, with Catherine needing to marry in order to leave her mother's home, and Leek declining an offer to go to art school because he needs to support his mother and Shuggie. Agnes's poverty also makes her dependent on men who mistreat her, which in turn fuels her resentment and drinking, which in turn makes her unable to earn money to feed her son. Ultimately, the poverty that struck Scotland in the 1980s is more than a bleak backdrop to the scenes of the novel: it is a weight on every character's shoulders.
Recovery
A counterpoint to the theme of alcoholism is the theme of recovery. Entering the story for a relatively brief interlude, recovery arises when Agnes begins attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. With the support of fellow recovering alcoholics, Agnes finds she is able to avoid drinking for a year. The group becomes a lifeline, supporting her spiritually and emotionally as she comes out of denial about her drinking and other destructive behaviors. The recovering Agnes is far more humble, willing to sacrifice her pride and take a job as a petrol station attendant. However, her recovery is tested when she begins dating Eugene, who has negative associations with alcoholics. Eugene's failure to understand the importance of sobriety for Agnes leads him to convince her to drink in front of him to prove that she is not really an addict. The plan fails, and Agnes's year of sobriety ends with a drinking relapse from which she never recovers.
Sexual Abuse
Sexual abuse is another major theme in Shuggie Bain. The theme first arises when Agnes reflects on her trip to Blackpool with Big Shug. After Agnes drinks heavily and upsets Shug, Shug pulls her hair and drags her to their hotel room, where he initiates violent sex. Agnes tries to keep her legs closed but Shug forces them open, raping her. Agnes is again raped by a cab driver when intoxicated, which she recalls in chapter seventeen. Agnes does not report the assault, in part because she is unable to remember who did it. The memory comes in flashes and brings waves of nausea to her. On New Year's Eve, Shuggie is assaulted by a cab driver who puts his hand down Shuggie's underpants, preying on a twelve-year-old traveling alone. When Shuggie arrives at the party he was going to, he finds Agnes under a heap of coats with her tights torn up to her waist, imagery that suggests she may have been raped while drunk. Ultimately, in every instance, the victims are left alone to deal with the ramifications of the assailants' actions.
