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25. Fickle Fatherhood
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
After Advisory the next day, Malachi observes that Emoni—whom he calls Santi—was quiet in class. Emoni is too tired to object to the nickname, so she says truthfully that she was up late working. Though he tries to ask about her college essay, Emoni asks why he’s walking with her when they don’t have Culinary Arts until afternoon. He says he’s just walking her to class. At this, Emoni stops short and says she’ll be friendly, but she and Malachi aren’t friends. (The toddler books Emoni has been reading advocate for direct communication and explicit instructions, and boys often seem a lot like babies.) Malachi agrees that they don’t have to be friends, but he asks to walk the same direction and for recommendations of things to see in Philly. Emoni is happy to talk about her city.
Emoni continues to keep her guard up around Malachi, seemingly fearing that allowing friendly banter will make her vulnerable to his charm and handsomeness. Note, too, that she doesn’t tell Malachi outright that “working” last night meant doing her own homework in addition to reading to her toddler daughter; for now, she seems interested in concealing the fact that she’s a parent from Malachi.
Themes
