Previous
Chapter 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Very Large Expanse of Sea, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racism and Islamophobia
Friendship and Community
Prejudice, Division, and Isolation
First Love
Summary
Analysis
In their biology class, Shirin and Ocean are assigned to be lab partners and get to work skinning a dead cat. As the end of class approaches, Ocean suggests they should get together to finish their lab report, and Shirin shuts his idea down, telling him that she’s busy after school. Intimidated by Shirin’s curt demeanor, Ocean tries to get to know Shirin better but struggles, and Shirin calls him out for incorrectly assuming that she isn’t allowed to spend time with him after school. Shirin brushes Ocean off but gives him her cellphone number before heading to breakdancing practice. At practice, Carlos asks Shirin if she can dance while wearing her headscarf, which shocks Shirin because she assumed that Navid’s friends would be more informed than her other peers. Nonetheless, Carlos laughs and apologizes, and Shirin ultimately enjoys practicing with Navid and his friends.
This interaction between Shirin and Ocean emphasizes two big things: first, that people do commonly make assumptions about Shirin, and second, that Shirin has grown a bit abrasive because of this. Shirin is a flawed character: she is quite cold to Ocean, pushing him away when he asks her questions about herself and being unwilling to make plans to work on their lab report together. A similar interaction later happens between Shirin and Carlos at practice, when Carlos demonstrates that he isn’t familiar with customs surrounding Shirin’s hijab. In this case, though, Shirin and Carlos are able to move past this mishap, demonstrating that people don’t have to fully understand each other from the start in order to get along.
Themes
