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111. Next Steps
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in With the Fire on High, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Coming of Age and Teen Parenthood
Creativity vs. Professional Norms
Food and Connection
Caregiving, Independence, and Identity
Support, Community, and Mentorship
Summary
Analysis
Since Emoni misses Babygirl so much, she picks Babygirl up from daycare. Mamá Clara shows Emoni Babygirl’s artwork and her dolls, and then Emoni and Babygirl board the bus. An older white woman says Babygirl is adorable and asks if she’s Emoni’s sister. Smiling, Emoni says Babygirl is her daughter. The woman frowns, but Emoni keeps smiling. Lots of people look down on Emoni for having a daughter, but they wouldn’t if Emoni were white. These are the same people who think white kids with cornrows are creative, but who call Angelica “ghetto.” Maybe Emoni is making assumptions about this woman, but she has lots of experience with white women who shake their heads at Black and brown girls and make them feel unwelcome.
Recall how earlier, Emoni made it clear that she feels no shame about being a parent. Here, she calmly refuses to let this white woman make her feel bad for having Babygirl. This is easier for Emoni, since she suspects that it’s the fact that she’s Black that raises the woman’s hackles; it shows her that there’s actually nothing wrong with her (since there’s obviously nothing wrong with being Black). Emoni accepts that she and other Black and brown girls will regularly experience this kind of racist attitude, but she proposes that she won’t allow women like this to make her feel lesser or undeserving of a place in the world.
Themes
