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Chapter 4
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Harbor Me, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Freedom and Justice
Stories and Memory
Unity vs. Division
Race and Identity
Summary
Analysis
The students continue to Room 501, the school’s old art room. Inside, there’s a picture of a yellow sun tacked onto the closet door. Ms. Laverne sits and tells the students her plan: each Friday at 2 p.m., the students will leave her classroom and talk to one another in the old art room until 3 p.m., when they can go home. The students object, saying that they don’t want to leave the classroom or talk to each other without Ms. Laverne being there. Ms. Laverne points out that they just like what they know and cautions them against avoiding the unfamiliar.
The picture of the sun becomes a motif in this story, and it also fits into the sun’s general symbolism of change and renewal: as the children walk into the old art room, they’re opening a new chapter in their lives, something new and promising. It's striking that the students balk at the chance to have an hour of free time to chat with one another; it appears that they’ve become used to Ms. Laverne as a guiding presence. At this point in the story, all of the characters fear the unfamiliar, and right now, that includes one another. It’s not so much the room that they’re afraid of as it is the prospect of talking to one another without the safety net of a teacher to guide discussion.
Active
Themes
Ms. Laverne tells the students that they can use the space to talk about whatever they want, as long as they’re not disrespectful to one another. Amari dislikes the idea, telling Ms. Laverne that she’s making the art room into the A-R-T-T room, “A Room To Talk.” Ms. Laverne reacts enthusiastically to his new name, and the students begin to come around, but Ashton is still confused. Ms. Laverne encourages them all and walks away. Haley reflects on the idea of walking into a new room. She thinks about the other five students, wondering, “what were the rooms for them? What did they hide inside those rooms?”
