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Chapter 21
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Such a Fun Age, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
External Behavior vs. Internal Truth
White Guilt, Ignorance, and Redemption
The Quest for Meaning
Race, Class, and Privilege
Summary
Analysis
Emira sits in a red booth beneath neon signs and fake palm trees. It’s her birthday, and everyone is at Tropicana 187 to celebrate. She’s wearing a tight black dress, sheer tights, and a plastic tiara. The club isn’t as upscale as the places Zara, Shaunie, and Josefa favor, but Emira is happy. She orders a round of tequila shots for everyone.
Twenty-six doesn’t seem like an important birthday on the surface, but it’s a big deal for Emira, since she noted earlier that it’s the year she’ll be kicked off her parents’ health insurance plan.
Themes
After the movie let out earlier that day, Emira took Briar to a bakery, and they split a red velvet cupcake. Emira has felt good about her work lately: she’s spent the week introducing Briar to new words, places, and ideas. At night, she scours the Internet for job postings, and she’s sent out six résumés. Emira even has an interview for a childcare manager position at Body World Fitness lined up, though the job doesn’t pay well, and she has a hard time imagining caring for kids other than Briar. And best of all, Kelley remembered it was her birthday and sent flowers to her apartment that morning.
By all accounts, Emira’s life seems to be headed in a positive direction. She’s taking the initiative to fill out job applications and enjoying the time she spends with Briar—even though she seems to recognize that their days together are limited, since she’s actively trying to find a new job. And it seems that Alix hasn’t managed to mess things up between Emira and Kelley, despite her vain efforts to do just that. Of course, the novel has yet to reveal exactly what Alix did with the Market Depot video she stole from Emira’s email account earlier that day, or what kind of favor she’s asked Laney Thacker for.
Themes
Emira and her friends finish eating and head downstairs to the bar area. Kelley shows up with some of his friends. “Hey, pretty,” Kelley says to Emira when he sees her. She tells him about her day and her new job prospects. Kelley is shocked to hear that Emira is thinking of leaving the Chamberlains, but he’s happy for her. Emira tells him about the awkward conversation she had with Mrs. Chamberlain earlier that day. Kelley wants to tell Emira about his meeting with Alix, but he holds off, not wanting to ruin the evening. Instead, he offers to buy the next round of drinks. Shaunie demands champagne. In between taking pictures and drinking drinks, Josefa quietly signals for Zara to come over. Then Zara pretends that Emira is bleeding, grabs her arm, and pulls her into the bathroom. Shaunie and Josefa follow. Something is up.
It seems that Emira’s happy night was too good to last; her friends’ discreet efforts to get her into the bathroom (without letting Kelley in on whatever is going on) are suspicious, to say the least. It seems likely that whatever is going on has to do with the Market Depot video that Alix stole from Emira’s email account earlier that day. And if Alix has released the video, it’s particularly thoughtless (and even cruel) of her to do so on Emira’s birthday. Increasingly, it's becoming hard to sympathize with Alix’s actions, as well-intentioned as they may be.
Themes
Emira and her friends crowd into the accessible stall. Zara asks Emira if she shared the Market Depot video. Emira doesn’t know what Zara is talking about. Josefa pulls up the video on her phone. Emira grabs the phone, sees herself on the screen, and starts to panic. Who could’ve leaked the video? She’d thought that she was the only one who had it, but now it’s on Twitter for the whole world to see. Emira scrolls through the comments. Many of them are positive, but a lot of them make light of the incident.
This is another moment of dramatic irony. It’s clear to the reader that Alix is the one who released this video (or forwarded it to Laney, who then used her media connections to release the video for her). Emira’s traumatized response to seeing herself in an embarrassing moment of extreme vulnerability—and knowing that the rest of the world is seeing it too—reaffirms how wrong Alix was to release the video. And this is true even if, in the back of her mind, Alix believes that doing so is best for Emira.
Themes
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Emira’s friends suspect that Kelley may have leaked the video. Inwardly, Emira tries to convince herself that it isn’t true: Kelley has been good to her, and she has no reason to doubt him—right? Before Emira can stop her, Zara runs out of the bathroom and heads toward Kelley and his friends. She pretends she’s lost her phone and asks Kelley to call it for her. As soon as he punches in his password, Zara snatches the phone and scrolls through its contents until she finds the video in Kelley’s outgoing mailbox. Emira freezes. She looks at Kelley and says, “Fuck you.”
Again, though the reader knows that Alix, not Kelley, released the video, Emira and her friends aren’t privy to this information. And since what information they do gain in this scene shows that Kelley had the means to release the video, it makes sense that they would blame him for the incident (that is, even though Kelley deleted the video off his phone, he still had the video stored in his email program). That they so easily believe in Kelley’s guilt also shows how nobody in Emira’s circle—and even Emira herself—felt at ease enough to fully trust Kelley. Social conditioning has taught them to be wary of privileged, white men like Kelley.
Themes
Kelley tries to explain himself, but Emira and her friends grab their things and exit the club. Kelley runs out after them. He tries to tell Emira he had nothing to do with the leaked video. “Literally no one else wanted this but you,” Emira tells him. Then she accuses Kelley of wanting to change her. She claims that Kelley hates the run-down neighborhood she lives in, and the fact that she works as a babysitter. Kelley replies Emira is the only one who cares that she’s a babysitter. “Cool,” Emira replies. Then she turns to leave with her friends. Before Emira gets in the Uber, Kelley tells her that Alix likely leaked the video. But Emira ignores him, climbs into the car with her friends, and leaves. Inside the car, Zara takes Emira’s phone and relabels Kelley’s number “Don’t Answer.”
The reader may view Kelley sympathetically in this scene. After all, Kelley did not leak the video, and there’s undeniable truth to his observation that Emira is the only person who’s unsatisfied with where she is in her life. Still, he’s failing to acknowledge how Emira may have internalized the judgement cast upon her by all the white people in her life who have thought they know what’s best for her and have told her what to do. So, Emira’s present feelings of inadequacy are as much a consequence of social conditioning as they are feelings Emira has come to on her own.
Themes
