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Chapter 17
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Summer of the Mariposas, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Sisterhood, Motherhood, and Family
Magic, Myth, and Deception
Gender Dynamics and Female Solidarity
Kindness, Mercy, and Morality
Ancestral and Cultural Appreciation
Summary
Analysis
The girls are taken to customs and questioned by border patrol, the police, and the FBI. Special Agent Gonzales of the FBI is a Mexican American man, which deeply impresses the sisters. They tell the authorities a revised version of the truth that leaves out the mystical happenings. Soon, Mamá arrives, ecstatic beyond measure to reunite with her daughters. Agent Gonzales seems genuinely happy and informs Mamá that CPS will contact her soon, but that he sees no proof of negligence on her part. Another officer brings Mamá the roses, and Odilia waits for her mother to undergo some magical transformation, but nothing changes. Mamá says she loves the roses almost as much as she loves the girls.
Being interviewed by so many authorities emphasizes that the sisters have returned from their magical quest to a world of realistic mundanity. Per Abuelita’s suggestion, they leave out the supernatural portions of their tale, and this shared secret unites them even further. The girls’ reunion with Mamá is heartfelt and emotional—her daughters feel the intensity of her love for the first time in so long. That Mamá does not undergo a magical transformation either suggests she has already been transformed or that Odilia has misunderstood Tonantzin’s instructions.
Themes
Agent Gonzales drives Mamá and the girls home, where a strange car is waiting in the driveway. The sight of it distresses Mamá, who says she has something to tell them—everything is going to change. They step inside, and Odilia embraces her mother and apologizes, comforted by her mother’s nearness. Mamá responds that they will get through this, no matter what. Suddenly, down the hallway, Papá appears. The sight of him is more shocking than all the beasts that chased them through Mexico; his abandonment is the hardest thing Odilia and her sisters have had to face.
Though it seems the Garza girls have completed their odyssey, they find one last challenge waiting for them in the form of Papá. His sudden appearance recalls Teresita’s prediction that the worst monster “lives among” the sisters. Judging by Mamá’s distress, Papá is not there to make amends. Even so, the girls are dumbstruck and clearly do not know how to react.
Themes
Papá offers no explanation nor apology for his absence. He calls the girls to him, but only Pita responds, running into his arms. Despite her desire to hope, Odilia knows Papá is not here for them. She urges her sisters not to go to him and angrily questions his hollow professions of fatherly love. Odilia asks if he ever considered what his abandonment would do to their family as Mamá sobs behind her. Papá claims to love them wholeheartedly, that he will never leave them again. Delia and Velia, desperate for Papá’s love, run to him, and Juanita follows. Odilia remains with Mamá, breaking the code of the cinco hermanitas, together no more.
Papá’s lack of apology indicates that he still believes himself to be in the right; additionally, he does not even feel he owes his daughters an explanation for his long absence. Despite this quiet callousness, Pita succumbs to the childlike relief that her father has returned, which makes sense, since she is the youngest. That the other girls, especially Odilia, hang back shows how their journey has changed them—they are more prone to suspicion. Odilia’s intuitive knowledge that Papá is not here for them is a painful expression of her newfound maturity, since she—like her sisters—desperately wants his return to make their family whole again. On the contrary, Papá’s presence causes a rift between the sisters as Odilia remains by Mamá’s side, showing how parental conflict and selfish men can force children to choose sides and potentially destroy sibling bonds.
Themes
