Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Little Life, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Trauma
Identity
Success and Happiness
Friendship and Human Connection
Pain and Suffering
Summary
Analysis
It’s the Fourth of July weekend. All of JB’s friends are out of town for work or pleasure, and he’s stuck in New York trying to quit drugs. JB doesn’t consider himself an addict. Other people he knows are addicts—Jackson, Zane, and Hera, for instance—but he hasn’t yet “slipped over the edge.”
That JB is the only of his four old friends to remain in town reflects the tense state of their relationship. It seems that Jude and Willem have patched things up with JB since the painting debacle on the surface, but the fight seems also to have left behind some lasting damage. JB’s drug addiction (and his fraying relationship with his old college friends) is further proof that his successful art career hasn’t guaranteed him happiness or personal fulfillment. As JB becomes more successful, his personal life becomes more damaged.
Themes
JB is in his studio today. It’s miserable—the building’s air-conditioning unit is broken. JB picked this building, a five-story structure with 14 assigned studio rooms, because he thought it might feel like a college dorm, but it doesn’t. Today, JB is alone on his floor. He uses this time to clean out his space, which is exceptionally boring work—especially when he’s sober. He considers how he hasn’t experienced any of the good side effects of meth use, such as losing weight, having lots of sex, and intensive cleaning. Meth allows him to work for long stretches, but he’s always been that way. And he’s still fat.
JB’s self-deprecating and lightly comedic remark about how his meth use hasn’t even brought about any of meth’s positive side effects (meth, of course, is a notoriously harmful drug) also shows that his professional success has done little to fix the self-esteem issues he dealt with even before he was successful. Fame and money might make some aspects of life easier (JB can now afford his own studio room, whereas before he had to share a space with others), but it doesn’t alleviate things like self-doubt and inner suffering. Also, JB’s desire to work in a space that’s like college shows that he’s still living in the past, suggesting that his present doesn’t totally fulfill him.
Themes
JB cleans for an hour until the heat becomes unbearable. He craves a smoke or drink but has neither. Then he asks himself how he’s feeling—something a “shrink” he’s started seeing recently, Giles, has told him to do. It wasn’t JB’s idea to start seeing Giles—his family, concerned about his drug use, made him. He didn’t appreciate their intervention.
Just as friendship has the power to alleviate some inner suffering, communication in general can lighten a person’s mental/emotional load, as well. JB officially claims not to appreciate his family’s intervention, yet the fact that he now, unprompted, asks himself some of the questions Giles has asked him shows that the therapy is at least having a noticeable effect on him and encouraging him to become more introspective.
Themes
The problem is that Giles is inept. JB shows up and answers Giles’s dumb questions (“Why do you think you’re so attracted to drugs, JB? What do you feel they give you?”) because JB’s mom is paying for the sessions. He makes up answers he thinks Giles will like. For example, he mentions his dead father a lot. Still, JB does think about Giles’s questions outside of the sessions. He’s asked himself the same questions and concluded that he didn’t plan to like drugs—it just happened. He’s known people who started using because they thought it would make them more interesting, but that’s not what happened with him.
JB puts on a show of pretending that Giles’s questions are stupid and unhelpful, yet the fact that he continues to think about these questions outside of his therapy suggestions suggests that the opposite is true: that these questions are forcing him to do the inner work required to work through his struggles with addiction. In a way, JB’s resistance to therapy is similar to Jude’s resistance to the ADA accommodations Malcolm includes in the Greene Street renovations. Like Jude, JB doesn’t want to admit that he has a problem—that he is vulnerable and struggling. He wants to be in control of his health and his image, and his drug addiction denies him that privilege.
Themes
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Drugs became important to JB after his first show, when he was 32. It was the first time his art had generated any attention from critics. The show also destroyed his relationship with Jude and Willem; Willem sided with Jude on the painting of Jude JB didn’t have permission to paint, and things haven’t been the same since then.
JB’s success (though really, it’s JB’s own selfishness) destroys his most meaningful friendships. So again, the novel suggests that a person must choose between success and happiness—they can’t have both.
Themes
After that first show, JB’s friends distanced themselves from him even more. He’s always known he would be the first of his friends to be successful, and he always told himself that he wouldn’t let his success go to his head—that he’d remember them even when he became famous. JB never considered it might be his friends who abandoned him. Last spring, Jude represented JB in a stupid legal battle with a collector who went back on their promise to buy one of his paintings. When JB mentioned that his lawyer was Jude St. Francis, the collector recognized Jude’s name and spoke of Jude’s intimidating reputation.
JB’s inflated self-confidence makes him very different from Jude. While Jude constantly fears his friends will abandon him, the possibility has never occurred to JB, and he doesn’t know how to handle their abandonment once his friends do distance themselves. With this, JB’s current struggles—his feelings of alienation, his drug addiction—are caused, in part, by JB’s failure to consider all the suffering and misery that can befall a person throughout their life, and all the ways people can let a person down. JB has lived a relatively happy, privileged life up to this point, and it’s spoiled him and shielded him from the brutal realities of life.
Themes
Willem’s success has also shocked JB—he’d always assumed Willem would fail because he’s not competitive enough. The fact is, JB’s friends no longer need him to make their lives exciting and interesting. And now, too, JB realizes that “success ma[kes] people boring.” All that successful people do is try to maintain their success. This is why Jude and Willem confuse JB: they’re successful, yet they’re still so impressed by life. JB thinks this likely stems from their miserable childhoods. After the four friends graduated college, Malcolm’s family bought them all tickets to Paris, where the Irvines owned an apartment. JB had been to Paris on numerous occasions, but he hadn’t truly seen the city’s beauty until he watched Jude and Willem take in all its glory. JB realizes that this must why drugs appeal to him: they make daily life seem less mundane.
JB’s privileged, happy life and supportive family have shielded him from many of life’s miseries. But not experiencing pain and suffering have made JB’s life boring and left him feeling unfulfilled. In this way, just as success doesn’t make a person happy, privilege doesn’t necessarily make a person feel that their life is worth living, either. Just as the book challenges the notion that people deserve the good or bad things that happen to them—that there is some moral, organizing principle that governs human existence—the book also challenges the notion that a good life is a happy life, and a bad life is an unhappy life. JB’s life has been objectively good—he has a supportive family, he has a successful career, and he has supportive friends, even if they’re currently going through a rough patch. Yet these good things don’t make JB happier than, say, Willem, who has endured unbearable loss and is the sole surviving member of his family.
Themes
JB is jealous his own childhood hadn’t been more interesting—he could use it in his art. He wishes he could be mysterious and tragic like Jude. He also doesn’t understand how Jude can be so self-conscious. It’s a real drag, and it inhibits JB’s ability to make art. JB thinks that all Jude wants to do is “play house” with Julia and Harold. Once, Jude turned down JB’s invitation to hang out on one of his collector’s luxury yachts—all because Jude couldn’t miss Thanksgiving with Harold and Julia.
JB continues to assess his relationships and the world around him primarily in terms of how they can advance his career. His ambition rules his life. This is why JB can’t understand why Jude would rather “play house” with Julia and Harold than party on a yacht. JB thinks that being the kind of person who has professional connections to important, influential people is more important than developing and preserving actual relationships, and this is why he can’t understand why Jude would rather see Harold and Julia, now his adoptive parents and the only family Jude has ever known.
Themes
JB wonders what came first: realizing his friends were boring, or becoming friends with Jackson. He met Jackson after his second show, which happened five years after his first. The show was successful, and Jackson was another artist at the gallery that put on JB’s show. He's not the kind of person JB would normally hang around with—his sculptures are obvious and “stupid,” and he’s rich and entitled. He’s also not very good-looking. None of JB’s friends can stand Jackson, and they’ve tried to convince JB to stop hanging out with him.
As JB considers whether his shifting attitude toward his friends or his new friendship with Jackson came first, he’s implicitly deciding whether one caused the other—whether boredom prompted JB to pursue other friendships, or whether Jackson persuaded JB to abandon his supposedly boring friends. With this, the novel shows that JB is on the cusp of introspection and accepting the reality that his poor behavior may have driven a wedge between JB and his friends. On the other hand, his continued friendship with Jackson shows that JB continues to place higher value on his career and image (Jackson is a successful, if not very good, artist) than on his relationships.
Themes
It’s true that Jackson is an “asshole.” And JB becomes one when he’s around him, too. Once, a few months back, when JB was in the process of quitting drugs and felt like dying, he called Jude. He told him where his drug stash was and begged Jude to get rid of it for him. Jude promised to do so once he was out of a meeting, and he ordered JB to leave the house with his sketchbook and get something to eat in the meantime. JB followed Jude’s orders. But while he was sitting in a café, he saw Jackson pass by on the street. Jackson saw JB and smiled his sinister smile at him, as if to show JB that there was no escaping him.
This scene makes it clear that Jude, not Jackson, is the friend JB ought to prioritize. Jude goes out of his way to help JB, even after JB has given Jude every reason to end their friendship. The empathy Jude gives JB in this scene mirrors the empathy Jude gave JB way back when they were in college and JB was in the hospital for his sprained wrist. All the same, JB continues to take Jude’s friendship for granted, gravitating toward Jackson even though JB seems to be well aware that Jackson doesn’t have JB’s best interests in mind.
Themes
When JB returned to his apartment after Jude called to say he’d gotten rid of the drugs, he arrived with Jackson. Jude pleaded with JB to come with him, knowing that JB would use drugs if he stayed behind with Jackson, but JB refused. Once Jude left JB’s, Jackson and JB snorted cocaine. Then Jackson got up and performed a cruel imitation of Jude’s limp, and JB was too high to tell him to knock it off.
When JB refuses to leave with Jude, he symbolically shows Jude that he has chosen a path of self-destruction and superficiality over healing and genuine connection. JB’s failure to defend Jude against Jackson’s cruel imitation of Jude’s limp further solidifies this decision. And this scene shows what a bad decision this is: before, Jackson seemed vapid and uncaring—a bad friend who doesn’t care about JB all that much, but not necessarily a horrible person. Now, with his hurtful imitation of Jude’s limp and the way he mocked Jude for caring about JB’s sobriety, Jackson shows his true colors: he’s an overtly cruel person who goes out of his way to inflict pain and suffering onto others.
Themes
The night after JB made Jude get rid of his stash, he made Jude come over to his place. Jude did. JB assumed Jude would lecture him, but Jude said nothing. When he begged Jude not to leave, Jude stayed there all night. The next morning, JB saw Jude asleep on the couch and made a mental promise to him that he would quit using drugs.
JB again turns to Jude when he needs help, and Jude is there for him—even when JB has given Jude every reason not to honor their friendship. And JB seems to realize this: it’s why he makes a solemn promise (if only in his head) to quit using drugs. And, as far as the reader knows, JB has kept this promise. The question thus remains: will he continue to do so? Will he continue to focus on his recovery? Or as in Jude’s case, is full recovery impossible?
Themes
Standing in his sweltering studio now, JB knows he can’t keep his promise. He’s craving his pipe too badly to paint. He goes home and smokes meth. When he wakes, he hears a horrible screeching noise. It takes him a while to realize that it’s the buzzer. It’s Malcolm, Jude, and Willem. Malcolm orders JB to let them in. JB does. He’s confused, though—aren’t they still supposed to be out of town? When Willem tells JB that it’s July 7th, JB breaks down and cries. Jude tells JB they’re going to get him help. JB becomes agitated and accuses everyone of judging and making fun of him. He snaps that Jude knows everyone else’s secrets but doesn’t share any of his own. Then JB imitates Jude’s limp, just like Jackson had months ago. Willem lunges at JB. JB hears bones cracking, and then he passes out.
It's only a few months before JB breaks his promise to Jude, suggesting that recovery, healing, and inner growth—when they are attainable at all—are complicated and not always linear. This scene also further shows how differently Jude and JB handle their suffering. Both characters struggle to accept their personal weaknesses and vulnerabilities, and both try to hide these parts of themselves from the world. But while Jude directs his hatred and cruelty inward, JB directs his outward, toward Jude. JB’s imitation of Jude’s limp is, arguably, his most unforgivable offense yet. That Willem, who is normally so passive and thoughtful, strikes JB in response is evidence of this.
Themes
When JB wakes up, he’s in restraints and at the hospital. He remembers what happened and squeezes his eyes shut. When he opens them, he notices that Jude is curled up asleep in a chair next to his hospital bed. In his head, JB tells Jude not to sleep like that—it’ll hurt him. In his head, he begs for Jude’s forgiveness—but he doesn’t say it aloud.
JB is a complex character. He clearly registers that his actions are wrong and hurtful. And realizing this clearly brings him lots of inner suffering, guilt, and shame. And yet, JB can’t bring himself to vocalize his shame and remorse. To a degree, JB’s cruelty parallels Jude’s self-harm, in that both characters resort to self-destructive behavior to regain control over their lives. Just as Jude cuts himself to feel that he has a hand in his body’s destruction, JB alienates his friends to regain control over the alienation he feels as his friends drift apart from him. It’s as though it’s easier for JB to accept that he did something to drive everyone away, rather than the reality that his friends chose to abandon him of their own volition. Still, while Jude’s self-destructive behavior hurts mainly himself, JB’s self-destructive behavior inflicts significant pain onto others.
Themes
