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52. Café Sorrel
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
In an email to Aunt Sarah, Emoni writes that she’s thrilled the hurricane was mostly just rain by the time it hit North Carolina. She says Julio is okay; he’s accepting donations of canned food and bottled water. Then, Emoni thanks Aunt Sarah for the fried green tomatoes recipe—it was lovely to hear about Sarah and Emoni’s mom eating green tomatoes off the vine. Emoni describes having to look hard to find green tomatoes, but the fried tomatoes were perfect. She’s going to keep working on her remixed recipe, and she’ll send it when it’s finished. Finally, Emoni thanks Aunt Sarah for the invitation to visit at Christmas, but she says she can’t come with Babygirl or leave Babygirl home.
Recall that Emoni and Aunt Sarah have been emailing about food and family recipes for several years now. This highlights how, in the novel, food is a symbol for connection and has the power to bring people together. Though Emoni and her aunt have never met and eaten together in person, they still share a loving, supportive relationship due to their shared interest in cooking. However, this only goes so far at this point, since Emoni isn’t yet willing or able to bridge the distance and visit Aunt Sarah in person.
Themes
