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You Can Hold on to Me If You Need To
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Patron Saints of Nothing, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Truth, Adolescence, and Justice
Responsibility, Guilt, and Blame
Culture and Belonging
Death and Meaning
Summary
Analysis
Mia and Jay meet up with Grace and Jessa, who look happy. Mia jokes that she had a bad time but then admits that she and Jay had fun. Grace and Jay leave the mall and Grace asks Jay not to tell anyone about Jessa. Jay says he won’t but is confused, since the family is fine with Tita Chato and Tita Ines. Grace disagrees: Tito Maning speaks negatively about their aunts now that her family doesn’t talk to them anymore. She asks if Jay had fun with Mia, and Jay says yes. Grace says that it’s too bad Mia has a boyfriend. She thanks Jay for agreeing not to tell anyone but accidentally calls him “Jun,” which unsettles them both. They don’t discuss it.
Tito Maning’s bigoted comments about Tita Chato and Tita Ines further solidify the sense that he has a narrowly conservative view of what is proper and right, and excludes anyone who deviates from that view. The fact that Mia has a boyfriend means that their relationship will not be complicated by romance, and they can focus on the work they want to do together. The fact that Grace calls Jay “Jun” makes clear her own grief and sadness about the death of her brother, and that she doesn’t talk about it after revealing so much else to Jay on this shows how much she feels she needs to keep her sadness hidden.
Themes
