Previous
Chapter 18
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Ambition vs. Morality
Femininity, Sexuality, and Power
Truth and Identity
Family
Summary
Analysis
Back in the present, Evelyn asks Grace to order dinner. Instead of continuing with her story, she simply looks at Monique. Monique can tell Evelyn is nervous to continue, so she asks the question she asked at the beginning of the interview: “Who was the love of your life?” After more prompting, Evelyn tells her it was Celia. Monique asks her if she’s ready to come out as a gay woman, to which Evelyn replies that while she loved Celia, she also loved Don, and Monique shouldn’t ignore her bisexual identity. Monique realizes that in overlooking half of Evelyn’s identity, she’s done what so many people have done to her regarding her race. She apologizes sincerely. Evelyn says she’s ready to come out in this book as bisexual.
Though it’s been decades since she realized she was attracted to Celia, Evelyn is hesitant to come out to Monique, which suggests that it’s the first time she’s discussed this part of her life with anyone outside her inner circle. In this moment, Monique begins to understand that Evelyn is just as complex as she is. Evelyn needs Monique to be as precise as possible with her language: this is Evelyn’s chance to tell the world who she is, and this story isn’t about Celia—it’s about her.
Themes
Monique asks Evelyn how she worked out her sexuality. Evelyn says that in that moment at the party, she realized she was jealous that both Don and Celia had been with other people. But she didn’t immediately understand that she was in love with Celia, because she had never thought about herself that way before, and that kind of relationship wasn’t accepted back then.
Because Evelyn had no bisexual role models and hadn’t witnessed any same-sex female relationships, her own identity was a kind of puzzle to work out. Perhaps this biography allows her to give future generations the role model she didn’t have, which explains Evelyn’s desire for Monique to record her life as accurately as possible.
Themes
