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Chapter 57
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
Willow ends up in a room with five other girls at the big foster care facility again. When she has some time alone, she immediately hacks into Lenore’s email. She doesn’t like Lenore but feels bad about how many emails Lenore has. Willow also transferred all of Dell’s files to her computer earlier when she put together his laptop, but she’s never looked at them before. Now she opens a folder and sees the system Dell uses to classify people. She sees that Quang-ha is a “lone wolf,” Lenore is a “dictator,” Willow is a “genius,” and Dell himself is a “mutant.”
Although Lenore hasn’t been a particularly sympathetic character up until this point, Willow learns that in fact, Lenore herself is in some ways also a victim of a larger bureaucracy that expects her to do more than is humanly possible. Meanwhile, Dell’s classification system contains some truth to it, but it also represents his old way of thinking from the beginning of the book. Seeing Dell’s old way of thinking reinforces how the time he has spent with Willow has changed him. Now, he sees her as more than just a genius. Moreover, some of his initial judgements, like the idea that Quang-ha is a lone wolf, are clearly wrong, since with the right encouragement, Quang-ha becomes a valuable member of Willow’s garden project.
Active
Themes
Willow closes the computer and goes to lunch with the other girls. Then Lenore comes and leads Willow to a grief counselor, Mrs. Bode-Ernst. The counselor says she knows thing are hard, but Willow will be back to normal soon. At last Lenore takes Willow in her car to the courtroom, where Willow stops to look at herself in the bathroom mirror before entering court.
Active
Themes
