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Chapter 18
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Counting by 7s, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Independent Thinking
Bureaucracy
Grief and Survival
Chosen Family
Summary
Analysis
Pattie is taking inventory at her nail salon when she notices an unfamiliar car pulling up, followed by a police car. She sees her children Quang-ha and Mai coming out of the first car. Mai passionately explains the situation, and Pattie signs a form to take legal responsibility of Willow for 24 hours. Dell wants to also be useful, but as he hangs around, he’s not sure what to do. Eventually, he goes back to his car to leave.
Although Pattie doesn’t know Willow, she demonstrates selflessness here as well as trust in Mai’s judgment. Like many characters in the story, Pattie has experience feeling like an outsider (as an immigrant to the United States from Vietnam), and this causes her to be more empathetic to other people who don’t fit in that way she herself has sometimes struggled to.
Active
Themes
