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Part 1, Chapter 11
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Memory and Meaning
Love and Vulnerability
Freedom
Art, Creativity, and Expression
Wonder and Knowledge
Summary
Analysis
New York City. March 10, 2014. Addie walks back across the Brooklyn Bridge to the Baxter on Fifty-sixth and tells the man at the front desk that she’s here for James. The elevator door closes behind her before the man can stop her. Addie types in the six-digit code for James St. Clair’s apartment and steps inside. She pours a glass of merlot and assembles a plate of cheese and crackers. Then she puts on a record and curls up on the couch. Addie wishes she could have a place like this, but she can never keep anything for long. Eventually, everything disappears. The only thing that doesn’t is the ring.
Addie’s comment about everything disappearing before long seems like something the reader should take literally. The reader already knows that Addie isn’t capable of being remembered, and accumulating personal effects and putting down roots someplace would be a way others could remember her, so it makes sense that whatever dark forces have cursed her would inhibit her from keeping anything—aside from her ring, of course. At this point, it’s unclear why Addie loathes the ring. It could be because she associates it with the day she inadvertently cursed herself, but there could be more negative thoughts Addie associates with the ring that the reader has yet to learn of.
Themes
Later, Addie draws a bath. She settles into the tub and remembers how she and James met in a coffee shop. She noticed that lots of people were looking at him, and he revealed, bashfully, that he’s an actor. James was an old soul; they instantly clicked and spent the rest of the day together. Later, James apologized to Addie. He told her she’s beautiful and that he had a wonderful day with her—but he’s gay. He told Addie she could leave if she wanted. Addie didn’t go, though. She said that she was having a great day. James agreed. They returned to James’s apartment for a drink, then they fell asleep. Addie left before James could wake up, too, and feel awkward about not remembering her. She thought they might have been friends if things were different. But thinking this way will only lead to “madness.”
That Addie and James connect because James is an “old soul” is played for comic effect—James might be an old soul metaphorically, but Addie, at 323 years old, is quite literally an old soul. That Addie leaves James before he can wake and not remember her shows that she’s learned to cope with the sadness of her invisibility over the years. She’s learned that it’s easier to remove herself from a situation before she can experience the inevitable sadness of being forgotten all over again.
Themes
Back in the present, Addie gets out of the bath and wraps herself in one of James’s robes. She opens the doors leading to the bedroom balcony and steps outside. She puts her hand in the robe’s pocket and feels the wooden ring brush against her fingers. Addie resists the temptation to slip it on her finger. Instead, she drops the ring off the balcony. Then she goes inside, pours herself another glass of wine, and falls asleep wishing she’d gone to Toby’s show.
This section poses the question of why Addie resists the temptation to wear the ring—will something happen if she puts it on her finger? Regardless, this detail seems like something worth paying attention to. Finally, Addie’s wish that she’d gone to Toby’s show—something that would have made her feel just as lonely as she does now—shows how dire her situation can be: she’s forced to choose between two different versions of loneliness, neither one more or less appealing than the other.
Themes
