Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Piecing Me Together, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Intersectionality, Identity, and Discrimination
The Power of Language
Mentorship, Opportunity, and Dignity
Friendship
Summary
Analysis
On the phone, Jade tells Lee Lee everything about the Woman to Woman meeting. After they get off the phone, Jade hears a knock at the door. Jade doesn’t recognize the woman outside. When she opens the door, the woman introduces herself as Maxine. Jade is flabbergasted: she can’t fathom why Maxine is here late at night yet she couldn’t come to the meeting earlier. Jade doesn’t want to let Maxine in—she doesn’t want her to see that E.J. sleeps on the couch—but she shuts the door to prep the house. E.J. tells Jade that Maxine dates his friend Jon and he goes to Jade’s room. Jade quickly fixes the living room and then she lets Maxine in. Maxine offers Jade a gift bag, and Jade reminds herself to be appreciative that she’s finally getting what she wanted. The gift bag contains all sorts of art supplies. Jade decides to forgive Maxine.
The way Jade reminds herself to appreciate Maxine’s gift illustrates how Jade has to suppress her true feelings in order to please authority figures. Jade again shows that she’s ashamed of her poverty when she worries about Maxine finding out that E.J. sleeps on the couch; hiding the evidence is a way for Jade to try to make herself not look quite so poor. Though this is a rather formal relationship in many regards, it’s important to note the shared qualities that bring Jade and Maxine together: they’re both black, female, and involved with Woman to Woman.
Themes
Maxine asks about Jade’s art. Jade hands over a sketchbook and Maxine flips through, awed by the collages. Maxine says she’ll tell her sister, Mia, about Jade, since Mia owns a gallery. Maxine’s phone rings and Jade says it’s okay for her to answer. It’s Jon. Maxine says she can’t talk since she’s with her mentee, which offends Jade—she wants to be referred to as Jade, not as Maxine’s mentee. Jade thinks that Maxine seems nervous as she hangs up, sits on the sofa, and then gets up to admire Jade’s bookshelf. They talk about St. Francis and Maxine’s high school experience. She didn’t participate in Woman to Woman, which Jade takes to mean that Maxine has never been at risk. Maxine says she’s doing this because she wants to give back and she likes Mrs. Parker. Mrs. Parker convinced her to go on the study abroad program.
When Maxine refers to Jade just as her mentee, this is another identity that Jade would rather not assume. Even if, technically speaking, she is Maxine’s mentee, she’d rather Maxine saw her as an individual named Jade who has dreams, desires, and passions. Even as Maxine makes these assumptions, however, Jade makes assumptions of her own: she assumes that Maxine has never been at risk based only on the fact that Maxine has never participated in a mentorship program like this. Jade is forgetting that lots of different people (like Sam) need help—but not everyone gets a mentor.
Themes
Jade tells Maxine about her confusion over whether she’s going to study abroad or not, but she doesn’t mention that Mrs. Parker seemingly nominated her for Woman to Woman instead of the study abroad trip. Maxine says that traveling changes people and it makes them appreciate home, but Jade says she thinks it’d just make her want to leave Oregon. Jade thinks Maxine’s beliefs come from never having lived in a tiny house with a leaky roof. E.J. enters the living room, greets Maxine, and says that she and Jon will definitely get back together. As Maxine leaves, Jade wonders if Maxine stood her up because of boyfriend drama. Jade asks E.J. to tell her everything about Maxine. He says he doesn’t know her well, but that she and Jon just broke up. Jade thinks that all of E.J.’s friends are boys whom Dad says to avoid. She wonders what Maxine can possibly teach her.
Jade continues to make assumptions about Maxine as they chat and as E.J. shares what he knows. In particular, her curiosity regarding what Maxine could teach her shows how little Jade thinks of people who make poor decisions due to a messy breakup. In this sense, Jade is distilling Maxine down into a person who makes bad choices, and this cuts Jade off from seeing what else Maxine might have to offer. They might not be compatible in the same way that Jade is with her other friends, but this doesn’t mean that there aren’t other aspects to Maxine that might pique Jade’s interest and earn her respect.
Themes
