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Part Five: In the Places They Left
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Warmth of Other Suns, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Migration and Freedom
History, Memory, and Identity
The Legacy of the Migration
The Economics of Racism
Love and Family
Decision, Consequence, and Regret
Summary
Analysis
Los Angeles, December 1974. Alice Foster dies of cancer at just 54 years old. Black newspapers like The Chicago Defender run glowing obituaries of her, and she is buried with her father in Kentucky. Robert’s children have moved out, so he lives alone with Alice’s mother, Pearl, in the Los Angeles mansion. They both miss Alice, but they simply don’t like each other, and Pearl eventually goes back to Kentucky.
Wilkerson follows the story of Robert and Alice’s anniversaries at the end of the previous chapter with news of Alice’s death at the beginning of this one. Despite all their differences and disagreements, they achieved a reasonable measure of happiness. Yet Robert’s conflicts with Pearl underline the risk that his life will become unduly lonely without Alice around.
Themes
Chicago, February 1975. Between work, church, and her kids and grandkids, Ida Mae is busy well into her 60s. And everyone in her family is having health problems. Her sister Irene needs eye surgery, Miss Theenie died after a serious stroke in 1959, and George has had two heart attacks, but refuses all treatment. Ida Mae goes to Milwaukee for Irene’s surgery, but when she returns, her son James informs her that George had a heart attack and died. Ida Mae feels terrible for not being with George during his final moments, but she’s relieved that he at least died peacefully in his sleep.
Even though Ida Mae had by far the poorest and most difficult childhood of the book’s three protagonists, by the end of her life, with her tight-knit community of family and friends, she is easily the happiest. George’s death is tragic, but Ida Mae’s faith and sense of perspective help her cope. Notably, by pointing out George’s resistance to seek medical care, Wilkerson returns to a key motif throughout her research: migrants who grew up with little access to medicine in the South often distrust the medical system in the North and West. Robert’s career is so remarkable in part because he manages to break through this barrier of distrust, and George’s distrust is deeply ironic because Ida Mae works in a hospital.
Themes
New York, 1978. Inez lives in a world of heartbreak: she has few friends, her son Gerard struggles with addiction, and George has a second family. Above all, she isn’t sure if moving to New York was worth it. She gets breast cancer in 1978 and dies shortly after. She and George never repair their marriage.
Like Robert and Ida Mae, George also loses his spouse and struggles to transition to living alone. His other family will never compensate for his distance from Inez, Gerard, and Sonya. While Inez may have regretted her marriage and move to New York, however, George never does—he probably would have been lynched if he stayed in Florida.
Themes
Los Angeles, 1978. After Alice’s death, Robert’s social life largely disappears. And without the social life, his lucrative job starts to feel pointless. So he drops his private practice and takes a more predictable job at the Veterans Hospital. He flies to Las Vegas all the time—sometimes, he goes after his shift, plays blackjack all night, then flies back in the morning to see more patients. He often wins or loses tens of thousands of dollars per night. His friends and coworkers try and fail to help him control himself, but fortunately, he has plenty of money. His gambling is really a way to prove himself and win attention. In his 90s, he gets into a car accident and loses his driver’s license, so he takes a taxi all the way to Vegas.
Aging and losing Alice help Robert develop a clearer picture of his true values. He realizes that social connection was always his most important sources of happiness and meaning—which is not surprising, because Ida Mae Gladney and George Starling ultimately realize the same thing, too. His attempts to replace socializing with gambling ultimately fall short, but the humorous anecdote about his taxi to Las Vegas shows that he recognizes this and does his best to take his decline in stride.
Themes
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