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Chapter 6
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
One night, Shirin struggles to fall asleep and writes in her diary. Shirin then decides to power up the computer in her room and sees that Ocean is online, which makes her heart do “something weird.” Before Shirin can turn her computer back off, Ocean messages her to say hello. Shirin and Ocean end up talking about what Shirin’s username means and what Persian food is like. Ocean says that he’d like to try Persian food, and when Shirin says there aren’t any Persian restaurants in their town, Ocean responds that maybe he can come to her house for dinner. This comment only perplexes Shirin further.
Although Shirin doesn’t go into depth about her feelings toward Ocean, her description of her heart doing “something weird” when she sees that he’s online suggests that she’s started to become romantically interested in—or at least curious about—him. Ocean’s rather forward attempts to try to get closer to Shirin continue to confuse her, but by acknowledging that her heart did “something weird,” Shirin implies that she might have subconsciously changed her mind about putting up a wall between herself and Ocean.
Themes
