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Chapter 48
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Play It As It Lays, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Meaninglessness
Gender Inequality and Identity
Loss and Recovery
Superficiality
Summary
Analysis
Maria finishes speaking with the columnist and hangs up the phone, and Helene tells her that she’s having a hard time dealing with Leonard, her hairdresser, being in New York for several days. Maria relays to Helene some gossip the columnist shared with her: Carter is dating Susannah Wood. Helene reminds Maria that she knew this already and changes the subject. She continues to vent about Leonard, claiming that his absence makes her almost “frightened.” Maria responds with disinterest but comforts Helene when she begins to cry.
Helene continues to demonstrate her self-absorption and shortcomings as a friend. She chastises Maria for being bothered by Carter’s new relationship with Susannah Wood, yet she cries when Maria isn’t immediately sympathetic toward how “frightened” she is in Leonard’s absence. Helene’s distress reveals the debilitating effects of her superficiality: she is defined exclusively in terms of how others see her and has no sense of identity in the absence of others.
Themes
