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Chapter 1
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
Leaving the dead man at the swimming hole, the sisters ride home. Juanita makes a plan to take the dead man back across the border by pretending he is their father. To their sisters’ dismay, Velia and Delia have stolen the man’s money, claiming they will use it to get him home. Juanita proposes using Papá’s old car, which Odilia alone has a permit to drive. Exasperated, Odilia tries to convince her sisters that their plan is insane, but they don’t listen.
The suggestion to pretend the dead man is their father reinforces the idea that the Garza sisters are projecting their unhealed wounds from Papá onto the situation. The continued bickering and dismissal of Odilia’s attempts at reason underlines their general sisterly disunity.
Themes
Mamá is already at work waitressing when the girls arrive home. Everyone but Odilia begins packing for their trip to Mexico. Figuring they will realize soon enough that they aren’t really going anywhere, Odilia cooks dinner for herself and her sisters. When she returns, they are arguing over what clothes to bring. Trying to settle them down, Odilia tells her sisters they will discuss the dead man tomorrow and goes to her own room. She thinks of calling customs herself but realizes that border control will probably shut down their beloved swimming hole as a result.
In the absence of Mamá, Odilia tries her best to get her younger siblings under control. She is accustomed to the role of responsible eldest daughter, seemingly unbothered by her sisters’ persistence in packing for Mexico. That said, Odilia’s failure to take definitive action to put a stop to the plan suggests an unwillingness to disappoint her sisters, as seen when she considers the possibility of customs shutting down their swimming hole. In this way, Odilia is characterized as both separated from her sisters as the eldest, but united with them in her youthful desires.
Themes
Odilia tells her sisters that she is sleeping over at a friend’s house, ruining their plan to go to Mexico, since they do everything together. She also lies about Mamá coming home early from work. The girls are enraged at Odilia, Juanita most of all. Odilia locks them inside the house when she leaves. Juanita calls after her, insisting they outvote her four to one, but Odilia has the final word as the eldest sister. She walks away, confident that they won’t try anything without her permission but concerned about how invested Juanita is in this scheme.
Odilia opts for what she sees as the easiest solution to ruin her sisters’ plans to travel to Mexico: she removes herself from the equation, assuming they will not have the nerve to leave the house without her. Her confidence in this plan shows that the five sisters take their code of always staying together very seriously. Even so, Juanita’s passion—along with her sisters’ general disunity—make Odilia a tad worried.
Themes
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Instead of going to a friend’s house, Odilia goes to the café where Mamá works. Mamá sees her through the window and meets her outside, looking tired and angry. The last time Odilia was here, Pita made a scene and got Mamá in trouble; unless there is an emergency, Odilia has been instructed to stay away. Odilia struggles to enlist her mother’s help without giving away too much of her sisters’ plan, but Mamá’s boss interrupts their conversation. He disrespects Mamá, but with little formal education, she needs this job to provide for her daughters.
The fact that Odilia goes to Mamá for help indicates that she feels desperate and unable to keep the girls from getting carried away on her own. Mamá is overworked, and her boss feels he can treat her poorly because she needs the job so badly. This stress, which weighs so heavily on Mamá, can be traced back to Papá’s abandonment. Not only is Mamá her children’s sole provider, but her job also makes her emotionally unavailable to those children.
Themes
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Mamá tells Odilia to take care of whatever is going on with her sisters and returns to work. Odilia feels no remorse for keeping things from Mamá; in her mind, she tried her best to involve her. Not ready to return home yet, Odilia wanders to her old elementary school and lies down on a bench, contemplating her sisters and their rebelliousness. She sees five shooting stars, one after the other, and wishes on them for Papá to come home and make them a family again.
Because of the stress she is under, Mamá has no time or energy to help Odilia mediate the conflict with her sisters—more fallout from Papá’s departure. The wish Odilia makes on the five shooting stars simultaneously makes her seem childlike and hints at some greater magic to come. To Odilia’s young mind, the problems with her sisters began when Papá left, and so the only solution she can imagine—and hope for—is his return.
Themes
Odilia naps for a few hours on the bench before walking home. She sneaks into the house disguised as Mamá, wearing one of her old work uniforms and crawling into her bed, pretending to sleep. She hopes their mother’s presence will keep her sisters from doing anything drastic. Soon, Pita enters Mamá’s room and tries to wake her. Odilia feigns sleep until she hears a scuffle; Velia and Delia are struggling to hold Pita down. Abandoning her disguise, Odilia reprimands them for fighting. Velia and Delia insist that Pita was going to tattle on them to Mamá, while Pita insists she was only coming in to say goodbye.
Odilia resorts to trickery to control her sisters, again demonstrating how she tries to take responsibility but is ultimately still a child herself. Even united in their goal to travel to Mexico, the fight between the twins and Pita illustrates a general rowdiness and discord between the sisters.
Themes
Juanita is disgusted by Odilia’s stalling tactics, but the girls are determined to make the trip to Mexico with or without their oldest sister’s help. Having found extra keys somewhere, they unlock the front door and pile into Papá’s old car with Juanita behind the wheel. Odilia chases after them on foot once it is clear they are serious about leaving. Seeing no other choice, she tells them to stop the car—she will come with them. Juanita refuses to give up the wheel until they reach the border. Secretly, Odilia plans to surrender to the authorities when they get to that point.
Exposing Odilia in her disguise seems to firm up her sisters’ resolve to disobey her orders. Juanita’s willingness to break up the cinco hermanitas demonstrates that their sisterly bond no longer carries weight, at least not as much as it used to. Resigned, Odilia comes along, but her plan to betray them at the border shows she is still thinking of her sisters as people to control instead of peers to respect.
Themes
