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Chapter 19
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Dear Martin, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Privilege, Entitlement, and Implicit Bias
Appearances and Assumptions
Support, Acceptance, and Belonging
Opportunity and Upward Mobility
The Media and Public Discourse
Summary
Analysis
Justyce goes straight to SJ’s house. Mrs. Friedman greets him at the door with surprising warmth, ushering him inside and saying that she and her husband have missed him, since he hasn’t been coming over to spend time with SJ recently. Justyce is touched and surprised by how much SJ’s parents care about him. After a few moments of conversation, he finally makes his way to SJ’s room. She’s surprised to see him, but invites him in, embarrassedly apologizing for her parents, since she can guess that they gushed over him. “You’re literally all they talk about these days,” she says.
Justyce’s discovery that SJ’s parents care so much about him comes at a good time, since he’s searching for acceptance and support. Although he may not be able to identify with them as white people, he can still feel supported by them as long as they treat him with respect. In this moment, he learns that they do indeed have quite a lot of respect for him, and this helps reassure him that his decision to leave Martel’s house was a good one.
Themes
SJ asks Justyce why he’s come to see her. He tries to answer but can’t find the right words. “Everything okay, Jus?” she asks, touching his wrist, where the handcuffs gouged into his skin on the night Castillo arrested him. Looking for a moment at his wrists, he “feels a weight slip off his shoulders,” so he stands and pulls her to her feet, “wrap[ping] her in a hug that lifts her off her feet.” With his face buried in her hair, he says, “I almost joined a gang today.” He then explains what happened at Martel’s house and about the visit he paid to Quan in juvenile detention. As he does so, he begins to cry, and though he’d normally be mortified by this, he’s not embarrassed at all, since this is “the best he’s felt since…well, since before he can remember.”
No longer letting his mother’s disapproval interfere with his feelings, Justyce embraces SJ. Although he has known all along that she is there for him, the undefined nature of their relationship has ultimately stood in the way of her ability to fully support him in these difficult times. Now, though, they stop holding back from one another, and it becomes clear that their relationship will help Justyce continue to resist the pull of the Black Jihad.
Themes
As he stands there hugging SJ, Justyce imagines Manny watching him and saying, “Took you long enough, fool.” “Justyce, do you like me?” SJ asks. “Like…I know you’re going through a lot right now…” She then says that she can’t keep trying to figure out how he feels about her. She has liked him since tenth grade, she says, but she doesn’t know how to “read” him. Because of this, she simply asks him if he likes her, and though he hesitates at first (unsure of what exactly to say), he finally replies by saying, “S, I like you.” “Why do I feel like there’s a ‘but’?” she asks. He says that he’s been afraid to tell her that he likes her because his mother wouldn’t approve of him dating a white person. “But I don’t care anymore,” he says. They then agree to date each other.
During this exchange, readers see why SJ has been unable to fully support Justyce in the aftermath of Manny’s death. Although she cares deeply about him, she has been trying to protect her own feelings. Now that they’ve both expressed that they like each other, though, there’s nothing standing between them.
Themes
