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Chapter 2
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in My Friends, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Friendship
The Value of Art
Loss and Grief
Substance Abuse
Summary
Analysis
The auction guard throws Louisa out, partly because she tried to spray paint on him. She hears people murmuring about calling the police, so she picks up her backpack and runs. As she runs, she thinks about how stupid all the adults are for thinking that The One of the Sea is a painting of water. She knows from studying the postcard that it’s actually a fishing pier, with three teenaged boys on it so small that most adults never notice. Louisa identifies with these boys. She thinks they’re laughing as if one of them just farted.
Louisa is just a teenager with a troubled background, and yet she sees things about The One of the Sea that the adults miss. Perhaps not coincidentally, the feature of the painting that all the adults at the auction are overlooking is the teenagers on the pier. This difference in perspective reflects Louisa’s belief that adults tend to overlook younger people, something that clearly rings true with her own experience of being abandoned by adults.
Active
Themes
Louisa cries, but she is also excited, because she learned something new by seeing the painting up close. She noticed that the artist’s signature has tiny skulls next to it. She decides to go back to the auction venue and enter through an old church in the back. But just as she’s running to get back inside, she runs into a homeless man so hard that she knocks herself unconscious.
Active
Themes
