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Chapter 88
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Sun is Also a Star, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Immigration and the American Dream
Passion vs. Reason
Interconnectedness and Destiny
Isolation vs. Connection
Summary
Analysis
Natasha wonders how many stories like hers Attorney Fitzgerald has heard. She picks up her story of the night Samuel ruined her life. After the show, the actors took their bows and the audience began to leave. Peter and Natasha waited for a half hour, at which point their dad walked back onstage. He stood there, staring at the empty theater. Natasha felt as though she could see his soul on his face.
Even though Natasha doesn't name it as such, it's easy to infer that she sees that her dad is meant to be in the theater. In turn, this shows that when it comes to her dad's passion, Natasha can bring herself to believe in fate and destiny, as the evidence in favor of the theory is just too overwhelming to deny.
Themes
When Samuel finally spoke, he didn't sound Jamaican at all and sent Natasha and Peter home. Afterwards, he drank with fellow actors. He drank too much, got behind the wheel, and hit a police car on the way home. He told the officer his entire story, and the officer called ICE. Attorney Fitzgerald looks confused and asks why her dad did that. Natasha tells the reader she knows the answer.
Samuel's lack of an accent when he sends his children home suggests that the play truly represented his sense of assimilation in the US, even if what it ended up telling Samuel was that he wasn't wanted (as evidenced by the barely-full theater).
Themes
