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Chapter 22
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Skin I’m In, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Bullying and Insecurity
Self-Esteem, Support, and Friendship
Writing and Self-Expression
The Importance of Role Models
Summary
Analysis
Maleeka skips lunch that day to hand in her submission to the writing competition. The librarian tells her that over 100 kids have entered the contest, which intimidates Maleeka, but she hands her pages in anyway. Before she leaves, she reads a few poetry books on a library table and thinks of her dad.
Without Miss Saunders’s encouragement, Maleeka likely would have been too intimidated to enter the contest or would not have gotten interested in writing at all. Miss Saunders’s confidence in Maleeka’s writing has, in turn, boosted Maleeka’s own confidence.
Themes
That day, JuJu comes into the office screaming, saying Charlese is failing because of Miss Saunders. Maleeka knows that Charlese only got As before because Charlese cheated off of Maleeka on tests in class; Charlese’s grades dropped when Miss Saunders separated their seats. JuJu shouts about how Miss Saunders is mean and ugly. Miss Saunders is then called into the office, and JuJu tells Miss Saunders that this is Charlese’s third time in seventh grade and that she has to move up. Miss Saunders counters that Charlese barely completes her assignments. JuJu then says that if Miss Saunders flunks Charlese, she won’t be able to teach anywhere else because JuJu “know[s] people.”
JuJu’s behavior illustrates the importance of good role models and the harm that can come about when children don’t have them. JuJu has been forced into the role of her caretaker in her sister’s life, and while she appears to care about her sister, it’s clear that she simply wants Charlese not to cause her any problems. JuJu’s anger at Miss Saunders also sets an example for Charlese, who bullies and threatens her own peers just as JuJu bullies and threatens Miss Saunders here.
Themes
