Altruism and Manipulation Theme Analysis

In a novel where there are no real villains or antagonists, almost all of the malevolence—intentional or accidental—comes from failed or false altruism, and the manipulative instincts behind it. Altruism, or concern for and devotion to the welfare of others, is supposedly at the heart of many of the actions that the characters in Little Fires Everywhere carry out. Mrs. Richardson gives her new tenant, Mia Warren, a job as a housekeeper in her home, effectively cancelling out Mia’s cost of rent; Izzy pulls a massive school prank in order to get justice for a classmate who’s being bullied by their teacher; Lexie, overwhelmed by her many glamorous possessions, begins giving them away to Mia’s daughter Pearl as tokens of friendship and goodwill; and Mia alerts her coworker Bebe Chow to the fact that her daughter, whom she abandoned, is being adopted by a local family, the McCulloughs, and urges her to take action to regain custody of the child. The motivations behind all the altruistic action at work throughout the book are not always as pure as they might seem, however. Though some characters do truly believe that they are doing good for those around them, those characters also cause distress or harm through their “altruistic” acts. Meanwhile other characters are purposefully manipulative, hoping that their actions, under the guise of altruism, will serve themselves first and foremost. To Ng, the flip side of altruism is always manipulation, and she uses her characters to argue that there is no such thing as doing a good deed entirely unselfishly.

Lexie Richardson’s actions toward Pearl, whom she sees as shy, sweet, and cute, start off as altruism bolstered by her desire to feel “the fuzzy internal glow of teenage generosity.” When she realizes the depths of Pearl’s fascination with her and her family, however, Lexie becomes a manipulator. Lexie manipulates Pearl into writing her college application essay for her—Lexie has, at this point in the novel, showered her new friend Pearl with attention, affection, and hand-me-downs, and Pearl, when Lexie asks her for the essay, feels both indebted and eager to help Lexie in order to secure more affection, more attention, and more of Lexie’s possessions (though she’s not motivated by greed; Pearl simply wants to immerse herself in the physical things that make up the Richardsons’ world). Lexie later uses Pearl’s name at a women’s clinic in order to hide the fact of her own abortion, with devastating consequences for Pearl and for her own family, too—she manipulates Pearl’s circumstances with no regard for what the outcome might be (and entirely denying Pearl agency and dignity in the matter), finally revealing the selfishness, narcissism, and lack of true empathy and altruism beneath all Lexie’s actions thus far.

Mrs. Richardson, after noting how much time Pearl spends with the Richardson children and how difficult it is for Mia to make ends meet, offers Mia a job in her own home as a cleaner and a cook. Mia accepts the job gratefully, excited for a glimpse into her daughter’s life as it starts to diverge from her own. Though Mia finds fulfillment and happiness in the job to begin with, and is able to observe both her daughter and the Richardsons’ daily lives from a close distance, eventually Mrs. Richardson’s condescension and misguided attempts to better Mia and Pearl’s lives (combined with her voracious need to uncover the secrets of Mia’s past), result in a devastating schism between the two families. Mrs. Richardson describes her desire to have as a tenant “a kind person to whom she could do a kind turn, and who would appreciate her kindness.” This quotation reveals several things: first, Mrs. Richardson’s belief that her actions are kind and altruistic; second, the narrative judgment that her altruism is connected to the desire to manipulate the feelings of others; and third, that Mrs. Richardson’s designs on both altruism and the manipulation behind it are bound up in her need for order, control, and the regulation of the world around her. Though Mrs. Richardson tells herself she is doing a good deed by offering Mia employment, a part of her perhaps knows—and the narrative is certainly aware—that it is not a purely altruistic act in the least.

In attempting to help her coworker, Bebe Chow, Mia unintentionally throws the McCulloughs’ docile family life into disarray by informing Bebe of the fact that they are in the final stages of adopting her child. At the point in the novel at which Mia begins to help and champion Bebe—apparently altruistically, motivated by her belief that “a mother has a right to raise her own child”—the audience is unaware of a crucial bit of information about Mia: the fact that she herself gave birth to Pearl after agreeing to act as a surrogate for a wealthy family, only to find herself unable to surrender the baby and on the run from that family just months before Pearl was due. Once this information is revealed, however, it becomes clear that not even Mia’s deeds are motivated by pure unselfishness—she is, in a way, attempting to use Bebe to confirm her own choices. Mrs. Richardson later accuses Mia of having intervened in the Chow/McCullough affair to help herself “sleep at night,” revealing that Mia’s motivations are more rooted in selfishness and the desire to manipulate a cause to obtain a certain effect than Ng originally led her audience to believe.

In the end, the many manipulations throughout Little Fires Everywhere range from the maliciously cunning to the transparently calculating to attempts at true benevolence. The hitch with altruism, Ng argues, is that no one can know what is truly best for another person—and attempts to manipulate another’s feelings or circumstances under the guise of helpfulness often result in more difficulty for all involved.