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Chapter 22
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Piecing Me Together, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Intersectionality, Identity, and Discrimination
The Power of Language
Mentorship, Opportunity, and Dignity
Friendship
Summary
Analysis
There are six people to fit into Kennedy’s small car. One girl suggests that Jade sit in the front, and Jade knows it’s because she won’t fit in the back. At Zack’s, the other students are short with the cashier and Kennedy throws a fit when she gets the wrong fries. On the way back to school, another girl talks on and on about how awful Northeast Portland is. She says it’s a “polished ghetto” and she’d be depressed if she lived there. Kennedy and the other girls concur. Sam, Josiah, and Jade are silent. Back at school, Josiah excuses himself and Jade and Sam sit quietly across the hallway from Kennedy and her friends. Sam whispers that she’d be depressed if she lived here and she never wants to eat with Kennedy again, but she does want to go back to Zack’s. The girls burst into joyful laughter.
On the ride to Zack’s Burgers, Jade is also reminded of the fact that she’s bigger than other kids her age—and that they’re going to treat her differently because of her size. Because of this, she feels like she has to act a certain way in order to earn their approval. The other girl’s choice to talk badly about Northeast Portland shows again that people at Jade’s school make a lot of assumptions about their city and the people who inhabit it. They live in a bubble, and so it likely doesn’t even occur to them that they could be hurting someone’s feelings.
Themes
