LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in NW, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Class Identity and Social Mobility
Geography and Human Connection
Sex and Relationships
Altruism
Summary
Analysis
Many years before the novel’s present, Leah lies in bed next to a girl she loves. The girl has a theory that the number 37 is special. She heard a rumor that the place at 37 Ridley Avenue is being used as a squat.
This chapter helps to explain the unusual structure of this part of the book, which has multiple Chapter 37s. Squats (places that people occupy without legal permission) recur throughout the novel. The novel is largely set (and was written during) the aftermath of a global crisis in the housing market, which contextualizes the abundance of squats around Leah’s neighborhood.