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Chapter 20
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Tell Me Three Things, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Blended Families
Intimacy and Growing Up
Wealth, Fitting In, and Bullying
Home
Friendship
Summary
Analysis
Jessie, Dri, and Agnes sit outside during their free period, enjoying the sun. Jessie finally has sunglasses. They’re knockoffs, but they make her feel like a different person. Dri says she feels invisible. Jessie wants to tell Dri that SN clearly noticed her and thinks she’s cool, but she’s embarrassed to say so. Instead, she says she wishes she were invisible so Gem and Crystal would back off. Agnes says that Gem hates Jessie because Jessie is hot, and Dri insists that Liam likes her. Jessie ignores this and watches Ethan head for the parking lot. She wonders if he’ll be back in time for English and confesses her crush to Dri and Agnes. Dri squeals, but Agnes says he’s damaged. SN messages Jessie with three things and Jessie reciprocates.
Buying sunglasses, even knockoffs, is a major turning point for Jessie—it suggests that she’s finally acclimating to her new home, at least enough to wear an essential part of the Los Angeles “uniform.” Agnes’s insistence that Jessie is attractive is a small way that Agnes can begin to shift power away from Gem. If Jessie starts to see herself as attractive, she can more easily ignore Gem’s taunts and be secure and comfortable with how she looks.
Themes
As Jessie walks into English, Gem fake sneezes and says “slut.” She follows up with several other ugly insults that even Mrs. Pollack can hear. Jessie tries to stand up straight, but Gem trips her. Jessie flies forward, hits her nose on her desk, and lands on the floor right in front of Ethan’s shoes. Gem and Crystal cackle. Jessie focuses on the pain instead of the humiliation, ignores Ethan’s helping hand, and slowly gets up and into her seat. Wide-eyed, Dri confirms that Jessie isn’t bleeding and Jessie refuses to go to the nurse. Mrs. Pollack calls the class to attention and Jessie tries her best to be invisible.
Gem has the confidence to overtly bully Jessie in front of a teacher—especially one who’s sympathetic toward Jessie. When Mrs. Pollack effectively ignores what happened, this suggests that Gem is powerful in more ways than just being the most popular girl at Wood Valley—there’s more that allows her to act horribly and not fear the consequences.
Themes
Jessie shoots for the door when the bell rings, but Mrs. Pollack asks her to hang back. Jessie hears Gem’s insults in her head as everyone else files out. She tries not to cry and says she didn’t do anything. She insists she doesn’t want to talk and realizes she’s acting angry so she doesn’t cry. Mrs. Pollack says she could talk to the principal since Gem’s behavior is out of line, but it might make things worse for Jessie—Gem’s dad is one of the school’s major donors. She asks if Jessie did anything to attract Gem’s ire, which is the final straw for Jessie. Jessie snaps that she hasn’t done anything, but doing something also doesn’t make it okay to call people names. She realizes that she’s never getting a college scholarship and that Gem will never stop, and she runs out of the room.
Mrs. Pollack illuminates why Gem can get away with her bullying crusade: Gem’s dad can pay to get Gem out of trouble. Gem is, in other words, politically powerful, not just socially powerful. This makes it even clearer to Jessie that she’ll never have any power at Wood Valley. Even if she may someday look like she fits in, it’s unclear if Rachel’s money will ever be able to give Jessie or Theo the ability to behave so horribly at school and not face consequences. Money is, once again, everything, and it dictates who’s powerful and who’s not.
Themes
