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Part II: Fire
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in This Is How It Always Is, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Gender and Binaries
Secrets and Misunderstanding
Violence and Discrimination
Storytelling
Family
Summary
Analysis
One day, Poppy comes home and asks Penn what “the hedge enemy” is. Penn is confused, so Poppy explains. She said at school that she wanted to be a baseball announcer, and one of the boys said she couldn’t do that because she is a girl. Then Poppy’s teacher said she couldn’t be a baseball announcer because of “the hedge enemy.” Penn immediately understands. “Hegemony,” he says. Hegemony is when one group of people has power over another. Like men, Penn says, who have historically had power over women.
Poppy’s question about the “hedge enemy” underscores the power discrepancies held in check because of hegemony. Hegemony, which is like the status quo, keeps heterosexual men superior to women and LGBTQ people in American. It establishes the dominant or default setting for American society and everyone else falls in line behind it. Women are capable of being baseball announcers, but whether or not they will ever be hired is another story.
Themes
That night, Poppy talks with Penn and Rosie. She doesn’t know what she should be when she grows up—if she should be a girl or a boy. Rosie tells Poppy she can be whatever she wants, but Poppy says being a girl is hard because of hegemony. Rosie points out that she makes more money than Penn, but Poppy says that is only because Rosie works a “boy job.” Rosie tells Poppy that she can’t chose her gender identity based on money, and she shouldn’t remain a girl if she wants to be, Rosie hesitates, “or could be a boy,” she finishes.
Poppy’s belief that Rosie’s job as a doctor is a “boy job” is a direct reflection of the hegemony that Poppy speaks of here. Women aren’t considered as capable as men; thus, important jobs like being a physician are automatically “boy jobs.” Rosie hesitates because she implies that Poppy will be better off if she just lives as a boy. Poppy’s concerns over hegemony are legitimate, and Rosie recognizes this.
Themes
Penn tells Poppy that if she wants to be a baseball announcer, she can be, but Poppy says she doesn’t want to be a baseball announcer. She wants to be an ichthyologist and study fish, but the other kids made fun of the word because it sounds like “icky,” so Poppy just said she wanted to be an announcer. Fish are amazing, she says, and some of them are even transgender. There are even Hamlet fish, Poppy says, that are hermaphrodites. “Everyone’s both,” Poppy says, “Isn’t that amazing?”
Poppy’s partiality for the Hamlet fish that are both male and female again suggests that gender cannot be narrowly defined as an either/or choice. The fish are both, and Poppy, to some extent, identifies as both, too. For Poppy it is not a case of male or female; it is a case of male and female.
Themes
Later, when Penn and Rosie are alone, Penn points out that Rosie said Poppy shouldn’t be a girl if she “could be a boy.” Rosie knows what she said, and she can’t help but think it would be easier for Poppy if she had just stayed Claude—or if she went back to Claude. Penn can’t believe it. Rosie explains (first pointing out that Poppy would make more money as Claude) that hormone blockers and other medications are technically safe, in that they don’t have many undesirable side effects, but long-term studies just aren’t available yet. At the end of the day, hormone blockers mean stopping the body’s natural progressions and inclinations, and no one knows what that means in the long run.
Rosie’s point is certainly valid. Hormone blockers are safe and have been used for years, but not in quite the same way that they are used for transgender people. Usually, hormone blockers are used to block one or two excessive hormones, but in Poppy’s case, the medication will block all her secondary sex hormones. As a doctor, Rosie is concerned about the long-term implications of permanently shutting down one of the body’s natural processes.
Themes
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Penn says he understands, but he still doesn’t want Poppy to grow up hating her body. Poppy will have to get used to hating her body, Rosie says, if she plans on becoming a woman. “All women,” Rosie says, hate how they look, which is another reason it is easier to be a boy. Even going back now will be difficult for Poppy, Rosie says. Poppy doesn’t even remember Claude, and what is normal to her is Poppy—with a penis. Poppy’s penis doesn’t imply manliness to Poppy, Rosie says, and often it is testosterone that makes a boy feel manly. If Poppy truly is a boy, she might not know until puberty, and she might never know if they block her hormones.
Rosie’s comment that “all women” hate how they look again underscores America’s sexist society. Women are expected to fulfill impossible beauty ideals, and when they can’t, they end up hating their bodies. Furthermore, Rosie’s concerns illustrate how difficult it can be making decisions for a minor transgender child. There are many considerations, and any number of them can end in disaster. Poppy is dependent on her parents to make the right decision for her, and there is a lot of information to be had.
Themes
Deciding what is best for Poppy doesn’t involve “prognosis,” Rosie says, it involves “prognostication,” in which case, Rosie is out. “Then that’s my skill set,” Penn says. It is about “fairy tales,” he says, “not hospitals.” Rosie tells Penn that living in a fairy tale would certainly be nice, but that isn’t reality. Penn thinks it is.
Penn is a writer, and if anyone can change society, Penn implies, it is a writer. Penn’s comment underscores the power of storytelling, which has the ability to influence others and get them to see the world in a different way through vicarious experiences.
Themes
