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
Emoni and Malachi have seen each other every day and they keep kissing, but there’s no pressure for anything else—and they haven’t talked about long-distance yet. ’Buela steps in front of the TV and asks if Emoni is going to be home today with Angelica and Babygirl, but Emoni says Angelica and Laura are busy getting prom outfits together. ‘Buela asks Emoni when she’s getting her outfit together and refuses to let Emoni change the subject. Emoni says Malachi asked her, but they don’t have the money and she doesn’t want to go. She’d rather stay home and watch Jennifer Lopez movies. This is what Emoni does. Malachi goes to prom and leaves early to see Emoni. They slow dance as Babygirl and ’Buela clap.
’Buela wants Emoni to have what she sees as a normal high school experience, which means attending the prom. But as Emoni has made clear time and again, she’s not a normal high schooler—she’s a parent, for one, and she’s less interested in classic rites of passage like going to prom. Advocating for herself and getting exactly what she wants on prom night, though, shows Emoni that she can make her life look like how she wants—she just has to tell people what she wants.
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Brock, Zoë. "With the Fire on High 116. Prom." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 11 Oct 2022. Web. 16 Feb 2025.