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Chapter 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in What the Eyes Don’t See, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racism and Environmental Injustice
Truth vs. Corruption
Community Values and Collective Duty
The American Dream
Family, Tradition, and Strength
Summary
Analysis
On August 26th, 2015, Mona arrived home from work and joined her husband, Elliott, in preparing the menu for their barbecue that evening. Elliott had just undergone shoulder surgery, and grilling was difficult for him, but he insisted on doing so anyway. Nina and Layla, Mona and Elliott’s daughters, were complaining about wanting to go on a vacation. But as soon as Mona’s old friends Annie and Elin showed up with their own husbands and children, the fun began. Elin, Annie, and Mona had all been part of their high school’s Students for Environmental Awareness club, and they stayed friends throughout the years.
This passage is another slice-of-life scene from Mona’s life before her knowledge of the water crisis. She was looking forward to a fun—if chaotic—evening with some friends and family, but she had no idea that a new piece of information was about to change the trajectory of her life forever.
Themes
The three friends hadn’t been together since Mona and Elliott’s nontraditional Chaldean wedding over 10 years ago. While catching up, drinking wine, and watching their children play, the three women exchanged stories and updates. When Elin asked Mona what she’d heard about the Flint water, Mona said she was aware of complaints but believed the water was fine. Elin gravely told her it was not fine at all.
This passage makes it clear that while Mona had heard rumors about a water problem in Flint, there were other people—people like Elin—who were much more tuned in to what was actually happening. The vast gulf between Mona and Elin’s responses to the rumors shows that there was a coverup at work—some people were getting one strain of information, while others were getting a different set of facts entirely.
Themes
