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Chapter 7
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
Louisa runs until she can’t anymore, finally breaking into a parked car to sleep. She hasn’t slept this well since Fish was alive. Meanwhile, C. Jat has been taken to a hospital, where he dreams of the summer he turned 15. When he wakes up, he confuses Ted at first for Joar. Ted has known C. Jat most of his life. He reassures C. Jat that the police were so busy with him that Louisa probably got away. It’s hard for Ted to see how weak C. Jat has become.
Louisa sleeps well despite the fact that her sleeping arrangement, in a parked car she doesn’t own, isn’t very comfortable. This suggests that seeing The One of the Sea and meeting C. Jat has helped bring Louisa a sense of companionship and peace, one that she hasn’t been able to find in her life since Fish died.
Active
Themes
C. Jat tells Ted that he tried to sneak into the auction to see The One of the Sea one last time, but a guard didn’t recognize him and kicked him out. Ted worries about C. Jat, who was supposed to wait for him in a café. But when Ted left the café to go to the auction, C. Jat secretly followed. He was in the alley because he was trying to climb in a window. Ted reminds C. Jat that he’s not 14 anymore. C. Jat begins to cough in a way that worries Ted. He urges C. Jat to treat himself well and try to live as long as possible.
C. Jat didn’t listen to Ted’s instructions, which shows how C. Jat, even gravely ill, still retains a youthful and rebellious spirit. Despite his frailty, he tried to climb in a window, showing his boldness despite his declining health. This passage contrasts Ted and C. Jat’s characters: Ted is cautious while C. Jat is reckless.
Active
Themes
Ted reveals that he succeeded in the mission that C. Jat gave him earlier—he managed to buy The One of the Sea. It took almost all the savings that C. Jat had left from his career as an artist. Now, the painting is in a box in the corner of C. Jat’s hospital room. Ted comments that he saw the graffiti skulls C. Jat painted in the alley and that he hadn’t seen those in a long time. C. Jat describes how Louisa inspired him.
Ted stays by C. Jat’s bedside for what feels like several days but is only one evening. By the morning, C. Jat is dead, and the news spreads around the world. The last thing C. Jat tells Ted is to find Louisa and give her The One of the Sea.
Active
Themes
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