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59. The Bright Side
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
Amanda is absent today, so Emoni takes a more active role in Culinary Arts. She follows the recipe and Richard’s instructions to blanch and salt asparagus and then start the orzo. Today is a grading day and Emoni doesn’t want to let Richard down, since he and Amanda always do so well. So, she carefully measures salt, pepper, and lemon. When Chef Ayden tastes it, he says it’s great—though it could use a bit more salt. After asking a few quiz questions (which Emoni and Richard answer correctly), he dismisses Emoni and Richard. Emoni can’t help herself: she says that she and Richard followed the salt measurement exactly, so if the recipe isn’t salty enough, Chef needs to change it.
As time passes, Emoni becomes increasingly invested in supporting her cooking group. Today, this becomes even more important with Amanda absent, as Emoni gets to make more choices than normal and must actively choose to follow the recipe as written. Emoni’s confidence is growing: she not only answers the quiz questions correctly, she also informs Chef Ayden that his recipe isn’t quite right. This is, perhaps, a bit rude of her, but as she sees it, she’s doing her part to make sure the recipes—as written—are the best they can be.
Themes
