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Part 6, Chapter 5
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. July 29, 2014. After Henry tells Addie his story, everything clicks into place: Henry’s restlessness, his gray moods. Addie finally understands what Luc has done: he has built her up so he can watch her fall. Addie breaks away from Henry and runs out of the bar before Henry can stop her.
Addie finally realizes that it wasn’t a mistake that she met Henry: it was a calculated act of manipulation by Luc, perhaps his greatest cruelty against her thus far. He has given her a taste of human connection—only to ensure that her invisibility and loneliness feel as fresh and unbearable as it did in the early days of her curse.
Themes
Addie has endured 300 years of hardship, so she doesn’t feel “broken, or hopeless” now: she’s livid. Addie runs out into the empty street. She finds the wooden ring in her pocket and twists it onto her finger. “Show yourself!” she demands. At first, there is nothing. But then Luc is there. She pleads with him to undo Henry’s deal. Luc refuses initially, but then he proposes a new deal to Addie: if Addie will spend tomorrow night with Luc, Luc will consider canceling Henry’s deal. Addie assumes Luc is lying, but she has no other choice and accepts the deal.
Once more, though, Addie resolves to show Luc that he has misunderstood and underestimated her. She doesn’t recoil and fall into despair at his cruelty—instead, it only emboldens her. The reader should be as skeptical of Luc’s dinner invitation as Addie is, given Luc’s track record with cruelty and manipulation. Once more, Luc seems determined to show Addie that he sets the terms of whatever deals—past, present, and future—they make together.
Themes
Addie returns to the Merchant, but Henry is gone. She finds him at his apartment, sitting alone and in the dark. It hits Addie that she’s going to lose him, and she can’t take it. Addie asks why he lied to her. He remembers an uncle who died of cancer when Henry was in college. His diagnosis changed the way everyone treated him, and Henry didn’t want that to happen with Addie. Addie and Henry move to Henry’s bedroom and lie side by side in Henry’s bed. She asks him how much longer he has. Henry replies, “Thirty-six days.” But it’s already past midnight, which makes it 35 days. They hold each other close, as if this were enough to keep Henry from disappearing.
Despite the hard exterior Addie assumed when she confronted Luc, this scene shows that her 300 years of suffering and loneliness haven’t hardened her: she’s still capable of feeling hurt and heartbreak. While her emotional vulnerability hurts in the moment, it’s been a positive attribute to her in other ways: it’s this willingness to be hurt and suffer that allowed her to open up to Henry in the first place, and their relationship—however brief it seems it will be—has been deeply meaningful to her.
Themes
