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15. Returns
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
Emoni finds it strange to become a mom when she’s never had a mother to set an example. ’Buela raised her and ’Buela is Emoni’s parent, but Emoni also knows ’Buela believes she failed Emoni’s dad. Emoni has lots of questions about her mom, such as if her dad would still be around if her mom was alive, or if Emoni would’ve gotten pregnant at all. Emoni is only in contact with one person on her mom’s side of the family, her Aunt Sarah in North Carolina. Since Aunt Sarah got a smartphone a few years ago, she and Emoni have been emailing each other recipes.
Emoni acknowledges that two different things can be true here: she misses her deceased biological mom, and she also sees ’Buela as her primary mother figure. And while Emoni values ’Buela’s choice to raise her, she also can’t help but wonder if she would’ve gotten better support from her biological mom. As Emoni and Aunt Sarah exchange recipes via email, Emoni continues to connect with people through food.
Themes
Aunt Sarah invites Emoni to visit every summer, but that’s when Julio visits and Emoni isn’t willing to take Babygirl that far on the bus. Still, Emoni treasures her relationship with Sarah, since she’s the only one willing to talk about Emoni’s mom. Emoni misses her mom even though Emoni has never met her. Emoni likes to imagine her mom as loving but strict, the kind of mom who likes painting nails and shopping but will also demand good grades and constructively criticize Emoni’s cooking. The only picture of herself, her mom, and her dad, Julio, that Emoni has is of her mom and Julio near the end of her mom’s pregnancy.
Emoni’s family situation, and specifically the fact that she’s already a mom, means that she’s not able to fully connect with her mom’s side of the family. For now, she feels more connected to Julio’s side and unable to leave her life in Philadelphia. Due to people’s unwillingness to talk about Emoni’s mom, Emoni is able to make up essentially whatever she wants about her mother. In this way, she’s also able to map out the kind of mom she wants to be—she can set an example for herself as she parents Babygirl.
Themes
