Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in All the Bright Places, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Mental Health, Stigma, and Suicide
Community, Support, and Trust
Individuality and Identity
Language, Meaning, and Control
Grief, Trauma, Purpose, and Survivorship
Summary
Analysis
Violet, Violet’s mom, and Violet’s dad are on the NYU campus. Though Violet’s parents are discussing how Violet can transfer to NYU for spring term next year, Violet is worried that Finch hasn’t answered her texts. She wonders if they’ll stay together or break up after high school. Violet’s mom says she’s not ready for Violet to go to college, and Violet’s dad’s eyes get damp too. Violet can tell that her parents are grieving the fact that they never got to do this with Eleanor. Later, at the hotel, Violet thinks of how she told her mom’s literary agent at dinner that she didn’t have a boy at home. Her parents looked relieved. But Violet reads through her Facebook messages with Finch and sends him another, quoting Virginia Woolf.
Again, Violet is feeling closer and closer to Finch as time goes on—so it’s disconcerting when he won’t respond to her messages. And because Violet is so worried about Finch, she’s too distracted to think about her future at NYU or any other college. Her parents, meanwhile, are unable to tour NYU without thinking of Eleanor and the past—they still have lingering grief and trauma as well.
Themes
