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Chapter 18
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Concrete Rose, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Masculinity and Fatherhood
Identity and Individuality
Loyalty, Gang Affiliation, and Family
Poverty
Summary
Analysis
Maverick’s eye is still swollen and bruised when he goes back to school on Monday. Junie and Rico are shocked and offer to beat up whoever did this, but Maverick maintains that he fell down the stairs. To get Junie and Rico to stop teasing him, Maverick asks how things are on the streets. Rico says that Shawn got arrested on Thanksgiving: the police found his unregistered gun when they pulled him over, and because he’s a felon, he’ll be locked up for a while. Junie says that all the “big homies” are fighting over who gets to lead the gang, and Rico says that with both Dre and Shawn gone, none of the big homies care about them. He’s glad to be working with King.
Shawn’s sudden disappearance drives home for readers that being part of a gang and dealing drugs is dangerous—it can mean a person is at constant risk of being imprisoned. Shawn’s arrest also has implications for everyone else still in Garden Heights: with him gone, the younger gangsters don’t trust that there’s anyone else to look out for them, keep them safe, and make sure they have enough money. King is starting to step in and fill that role.
Themes
The conversation turns to the winter dance. Junie and Rico are planning on getting a limo and renting tuxes, but Maverick knows Ma won’t watch Seven while she’s still so upset about Lisa. Maverick also knows he can’t afford the several hundred dollars; he says he needs to buy Seven a new car seat. Junie laughs about Maverick’s dusty shoes, the same pair he’s been wearing since summer. Maverick knows that if he was dealing drugs, he’d be able to buy shoes and stuff for Seven—but Dre wouldn’t want him to. As he follows Junie and Rico to class, Maverick thinks he’s living in a different world now. He feels like his life is over when Mr. Phillips reminds his class that there’s an exam today. Maverick didn’t study at all.
Again, Junie and Rico don’t understand that Maverick has different priorities now than he did six months ago. He has car seats and diapers to think about, and those things are more important to him than the school dance. But Maverick also recognizes that things could be easier financially if he was dealing drugs. Dealing, he knows, would make him more than enough money to live his life and support his children. But because Maverick is still so loyal to Dre, he knows he can’t give in to that line of thinking.
Themes
By the end of the day, Maverick has taken three tests he forgot to study for. He puts his head back on the bus; he’s headed downtown to go with Lisa to her doctor’s appointment. The doctor’s office is on the fifth floor of a skyscraper, and Maverick feels out of place among all the businessmen in the building. The office is also clearly not the free clinic; it’s clean and has a fountain. In the waiting room, he finds Lisa with Carlos. Lisa looks from Maverick’s black eye to Carlos’s bandaged hand and rolls her eyes. She tells Carlos that he should be just as mad at her as he is at Maverick, since she participated in making the baby.
Seeing a doctor downtown in a skyscraper shows that Lisa and Maverick come from different economic backgrounds. Her family is wealthier and can afford to pay for better healthcare, while Maverick’s family is relegated to the free clinic. When Lisa snaps that Carlos should be mad at her too, it shows that she’s taking responsibility for getting pregnant. This contrasts greatly to how Maverick told Pops this baby was an “accident.”
Themes
A nurse calls Lisa’s name, and Maverick is shocked: the nurse is Moe. Maverick and Carlos follow Lisa, and Moe reminds them that only one person can go back with Lisa. Carlos gives Maverick a dirty look as Maverick follows her back. Moe takes Lisa’s weight while another nurse takes blood and urine samples. Then, Moe takes Lisa to an exam room and tells her to put a hospital gown on for Dr. Byrd. Moe assures Lisa that they’ll take good care of her—Ma would kill her if she didn’t. Maverick says he’s surprised Moe didn’t stop by on Thanksgiving, and Moe’s smile seems to dim. She leaves the room.
By allowing Maverick and not Carlos to go back with her for the appointment, Lisa shows that she wants Maverick to be involved—perhaps Maverick’s desire for them to be a couple isn’t so out of line after all. Meanwhile, Moe’s reaction when Maverick asks about Thanksgiving is odd, and it seems like Maverick must be missing something.
Themes
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Maverick is confused. He turns to Lisa, but Lisa just asks him if he really hasn’t figured it out yet. Lisa smirks and starts to undress. She gives Maverick an evil look when he stares at her breasts and threatens to send him out, so Maverick picks up an odd-looking toy on the table. He asks what kind of toy it is, and Lisa says it’s a model uterus. Maverick drops it. When he looks back at Lisa, she’s sitting on the table, wearing the gown.
Lisa confirms that Maverick is missing something about Ma and Moe’s relationship, but the novel is purposefully vague about what this is. As Maverick plays with the model uterus, it shows how little he knows about women’s bodies and what pregnancy entails. Even though he’s a father, he still has a great deal to learn about women and babies.
Themes
Lisa and Maverick discuss Carlos’s bad behavior, and Lisa apologizes for being so mean last week. She says that she’s still sick all the time, but school has been “interesting.” After she told her coach she’s pregnant, she was called to the office to “discuss [her] salvation.” She’s sinned, and they tried to convince her to choose adoption. When she told them that she’s keeping the baby, they told her to marry the father so that the baby won’t be born out of wedlock. Maverick jokes that he’d be fine with that, but Lisa’s face falls. She reminds Maverick that they’re not a couple; she doesn’t want her baby to have a “gangbanger” father.
Lisa attends a Catholic school, which is why her school’s administration is so concerned about her salvation and what she’s going to do with the baby. The school’s advice to marry the father implies that they don’t support abortion or adoption as options for pregnant women. But Lisa clearly isn’t ready to even consider marrying anyone, let alone Maverick.
Themes
Dr. Byrd, a heavyset Black woman, comes in, interrupting Maverick and Lisa’s conversation. Maverick is shocked that it seems like the entire office is Black. Dr. Byrd takes his and Lisa’s family history and doesn’t talk down to them. After Dr. Byrd performs a pelvic exam, she asks if they have any questions. Lisa came prepared with a list of questions and even asks if she can have sex. Dr. Byrd says that she can, and Maverick is shocked. He asks if the baby will “see stuff,” but Dr Byrd chuckles and says it’ll be fine. She asks if Maverick has any questions—he clearly wants to be involved. The only question Maverick can think of that won’t make him sound dumb is when they’ll know if it’s a boy or a girl.
When Maverick is shocked that the entire office seems to be Black, it implies that he expects medical professionals to be white. This is perhaps a consequence of growing up in Garden Heights, where Black people like Maverick and his family are largely disenfranchised. This doctor’s visit, in other words, is introducing Maverick to the idea that Black people are just as capable of becoming successful professionals as people of other races are. Lisa demonstrates her maturity by coming prepared with so many questions, while Maverick’s question about whether the baby will “see stuff” if he and Lisa have sex is comparatively immature. But still, Maverick doesn’t want to look young or unintelligent in front of the doctor. Given how little he knows about pregnancy, asking when they can find out the baby’s sex is all he can come up with.
Themes
Dr. Byrd says that they can’t find out this early, but they will do an ultrasound today to confirm Lisa’s due date and possibly hear the heartbeat. As Dr. Byrd gets Lisa situated for the ultrasound, Lisa lets Maverick take her hand. On the screen, a black hole appears with a white blob in the middle. Dr. Byrd points out the baby’s head and the heart. Then, she turns a dial, and they hear the heartbeat. Maverick doesn’t have words, and Lisa’s eyes glisten. Dr. Byrd says that Lisa is due mid-July, and she prints sonogram pictures for Lisa and Maverick.
Lisa continues to give Maverick mixed signals by allowing him to take her hand here—she wants his support, but only on her terms. Seeing the baby on the ultrasound and hearing the heartbeat helps make this pregnancy real for Maverick. It shows him that he’s going to have one more person to care for, and it helps him start to connect to his new child.
Themes
Maverick leads Lisa to the billing desk. It turns out that Ms. Montgomery hasn’t taken Lisa off her insurance, so insurance covers all but a $20 copay. Maverick digs into his wallet, but he only has gum. Carlos comes over, hands the lady at the desk money, and says that Maverick has too many kids to pay for. He asks how Maverick is going to care for Lisa’s baby and then leads Lisa out of the office. It feels like everyone is depending on Maverick, but Maverick can’t do much with his paychecks from Mr. Wyatt. Dre was wrong—Maverick has to sell drugs again.
It's extremely shameful for Maverick when he can’t pay Lisa’s copay. This shows how much Maverick’s economic choices are guided by his desire to avoid shame. It’s not so bad to work for Mr. Wyatt for comparatively low wages when Maverick only has to worry about basic necessities. But working for Mr. Wyatt suddenly becomes far more shameful when Maverick realizes that the job doesn’t give him enough to support his future child.
Themes
