Previous
Chapter 14
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Atmosphere, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love, Relationships, and Meaning
Courage and Identity
Sexism and Misogyny
Heteronormativity and Family
Summary
Analysis
In the fall of 1983, Joan goes to the grocery store with Barbara to buy supplies for one of the weekly parties that Barbara and Daniel have been throwing at their house. At the store, Barbara and Joan talk about Barbara’s upcoming wedding. Barbara offhandedly says that Joan won’t have a plus one, and Joan asks why not, especially because she’s the maid of honor. Joan adds that she could bring a friend, either a man or a woman, to keep her company. Barbara tells Joan that she hasn’t been on a date in 20 years and that bringing a woman would be “preposterous.” Barbara then makes a homophobic comment. When Joan and Barbara return to Barbara’s house, Barbara tells Daniel that Joan is upset that she can’t bring a guest. Barbara and Daniel then talk privately, and when they come back out, Barbara tells Joan that she can bring a guest.
This scene suggests that Barbara’s apparent turn toward being more selfless and appreciative of Joan didn’t signal a meaningful change in Barbara. Instead, Barbara returns to her customary selfishness when she says, frankly, that Joan won’t have a plus one to her (Barbara’s) wedding. Barbara also notably makes homophobic comments while discussing Joan’s idea of bringing a friend who is a woman, underlining the pervasiveness of homophobia at the time and how homophobia is present in both Joan’s personal and professional life.
Active
Themes
Joan then goes back to her apartment and tells Vanessa what happened. Joan is surprised when Vanessa says she wants to go to the wedding with Joan, if only to spite Barbara. At the wedding a few weeks later, Joan looks at Vanessa while Barbara and Daniel recite their vows. When talking with her parents after, Joan wants to tell them that she wants exactly what Barbara and Daniel have with Vanessa, but that the country’s homophobia prohibits her from having it.
The novel again underlines the impact of the culture of homophobia in the U.S. at the time. Namely, not only does it prohibit Vanessa and Joan from being married, but it also means that Joan can’t tell her parents about her relationship with Vanessa, which then also creates a distance between Joan and her family.
Active
Themes
In the middle of the dancing, Joan and Vanessa bring Frances back to her hotel room. When Frances falls asleep, Joan and Vanessa talk about their relationship. Vanessa says she wants to give Joan everything in life, including marriage and a public relationship, and that it’s unfair that she won’t be able to. Vanessa adds that during the wedding, she realized that she wants to marry Joan.
Active
Themes
Vanessa then tells Joan that she (Vanessa) is okay with the trade-off of keeping their relationship private if it means she gets to love Joan, but she wants to make sure that Joan is okay with that trade-off, too. Vanessa says that if she is enough for Joan, then she wants to be together forever. Joan is overjoyed. A week later, when Joan is sick, Vanessa calls her and says that she’s been assigned to go on a space mission in December of 1984, six weeks after Joan’s mission. Joan and Vanessa couldn’t be happier.
Active
Themes
Get the entire Atmosphere LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
