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Tone
Troubled About My Soul
Explanation and Analysis—Nothing Very Outstanding:
In one of the novel's many flashbacks, Tish remembers her and Fonny's "first date." Fonny invites Tish to go to church with him and his mother and sisters, who are very religious. Tish and her family are not especially religious, which makes her nervous to go to church with the devout Hunt family. Tish describes how she knows that Fonny's mother doesn't like her. But Tish does not understand the reason why this is the case—and, as such, is an unreliable narrator:
[...Fonny's] mother and them two sisters didn't want me. In one way, as I realized later, they didn't think that I was good enough for Fonny—which really means that they didn't think I was good enough for them—and in another way, they felt that I was maybe just exactly what Fonny deserved. Well I'm dark and my hair is just plain hair and there is nothing very outstanding about me and not even Fonny bothers to pretend I'm pretty, he just says that pretty girls are a terrible drag.
Related Themes:
