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Chapter 42
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Behold the Dreamers, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Sustainability of the American Dream
The Modern Immigrant Experience
Class and Interdependency
Parental Expectations vs. Personal Ambitions
Family and Belonging
Summary
Analysis
Anna calls Neni before six o’clock on the morning after Neni left the Edwardses’ apartment. She wants to know what Neni said to Cindy, who locked herself in the bathroom and cried alone for two hours after Neni left. Anna went to her and Cindy shouted at her to leave her alone. Anna says that Cindy shouted the F-word at her over and over again. Anna worries that Cindy thinks that she and Neni may have planned the blackmail scheme together. Anna reminds Neni of Cindy’s “problems,” and Neni insists that she has problems, too. She says that she’s tired of people wanting her to care more about others than about herself and her family. She says that it’s Cindy’s responsibility to find a way to be happy. Neni says that she hopes that Cindy does so soon, because Neni feels very sorry for her.
Unable to get back at Neni for besting her, Cindy takes her frustrations out on the only person who has no real choice but to suffer her abuse—Anna. Anna’s concern that Cindy may think that she and Neni planned the scheme together anticipates Cindy’s willingness to believe the worst, even about a woman who has worked for her for twenty-two years. Neni’s focus on her own problems is a step away from the class co-dependency in which both Jende and Anna got caught.
Themes
