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Chapter 15
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Devil in a Blue Dress, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Race and Identity
Power and Corruption
Violence, Justice, and Morality
The American Dream
Summary
Analysis
Exhausted and overwhelmed, Easy sleeps through the day, haunted by dreams that blend Richard’s dead body with the corpses he once witnessed in the war. Upon waking, he calls EttaMae in Houston to ask how he might contact Mouse. Although EttaMae is happy to hear from Easy, she reminds him that she and Mouse have broken up, and Easy feels ashamed for causing her sadness. She can tell that something is wrong based on Easy’s tone. He asks her to tell Mouse to call him if she sees him, then falls asleep again, gazing out his window at the apple tree in his yard.
Pushed to the end of his rope, Easy breaks down and decides to seek Mouse’s help. Despite his own lingering shame over their shared past, his desperation leaves him feeling vulnerable and unmoored, almost like a child seeking comfort in the familiar. (He and Mouse were friends for so long for a reason, after all.) The call with EttaMae demonstrates that even amid the chaos and deception, Easy has still retained his humanity.
Themes
