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19. An Art Form
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
Malachi jogs to catch up with Emoni, calling her by her last name, Santiago. Emoni briskly tells him he can use her first name, but she privately doesn’t want Malachi to think she wants to chat. But Malachi barrels ahead, asking if Imani is a day during Kwanzaa and admitting he didn’t think Emoni was “Black-black.” He figured she was Spanish given her curly hair and light skin, and he tugs one of Emoni’s curls. Thoroughly annoyed, Emoni explains that her dad is Puerto Rican and darker than her mom, whose family is “straight-from-the-Carolinas Black.” Emoni knows he’s not trying to offend her—he’s trying to charm her—but she doesn’t want this. Suddenly, Malachi smiles a gorgeous smile and Emoni mentally curses. As they reach Emoni’s English class, Malachi suggests he’d like to try Emoni’s cooking and tells her goodbye, calling her “Santi.”
Recall that Emoni has no interest in getting involved with boys after Tyrone—and at first brush, Malachi seems to be just as charming (and therefore just as dangerous) as Tyrone was. His assumptions about her ethnicity also highlight some of the assumptions Emoni undoubtedly deals with on a daily basis: she is Black and Puerto Rican, but clearly, some people don’t see either one or the other. As Malachi says he’d like to try Emoni’s cooking, cooking and food continue to emerge as symbols for connection. Malachi wants to connect with Emoni, and given that they’re both at least marginally interested in cooking (since they’ve signed up for the culinary arts class), he sees this as an obvious in.
Themes
