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Chapter 3
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
After having dinner with her family, Shirin realizes she’s missed several text messages from Ocean, who’s worried about their incomplete lab report. Over an online messenger, Shirin and Ocean begin to talk, and Ocean apologizes for making assumptions about Shirin. As Shirin tries to shift the conversation toward homework, Ocean continues to apologize for potentially making Shirin uncomfortable, and Shirin asks if her “situation” is too weird for him. When Ocean becomes silent, Shirin starts to feel bad, wondering if she’s being too blunt, but Ocean clarifies that he doesn’t find her weird and does want to be her lab partner. Finding their conversation perplexing and stressful, Shirin wishes she could go back to not caring about Ocean. Instead, she feels that their relationship has changed, though she can’t quite articulate how.
During this conversation with Ocean, Shirin starts to question the ways in which she interacts with him, showing that she doesn’t actually want to hurt Ocean despite her initial coldness. On Ocean’s end, his insistence on apologizing to Shirin suggests that he’s spent a lot of time thinking about their earlier interaction and wants to make things right. His apologetic behavior, however, is unfamiliar to Shirin, and she notes that their conversation is difficult for her to understand. Shirin’s confusion emphasizes that Ocean is different from most people she’s interacted with in the past, and this may be in part because he apologizes profusely when he’s made a mistake.
Themes
