Previous
Chapter 82
Themes
and Colors
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
BZ is surprised when Maria opens the door, since he assumed she’d be in Las Vegas with everyone else. Maria asks BZ why he’s so sad. BZ puts down the bottle of vodka he brought with him. He removes a handful of Seconal pills from his pocket and offers some to Maria. When Maria declines, BZ accuses her of “still playing” the game and warns her that she’s eventually going to get tired of playing and be just like him. BZ explains that he came to Maria tonight because the two of them “know something” the others don’t and have “been out there where nothing is.”
This chapter takes place in the desert. BZ thinks that once a person “know[s] something” about life’s meaninglessness and has “been out there where nothing is,” they have no choice but to exit the game. He sees suicide as the only bearable option for a person in his and Maria’s enlightened, disillusioned position.
Active
Themes
BZ lies on the bed next to Maria and takes her hand. They listen to a fight break out in the bar across the street. Maria begins to drift off to sleep but opens her eyes in time to see BZ washing down the pills with a glass of water. BZ tells Maria to hold him and go back to sleep.
This is the climax of the novel, yet it’s hardly a climactic moment: Maria sees BZ takes the pills, makes no effort to stop him, and promptly falls back asleep. The subdued manner in which the scene unfolds emphasizes Maria’s and BZ’s very different approaches to their adjacent brands of nihilism: whereas BZ believes he has an existential imperative to succumb to nothingness, Maria believes that life is equally as meaningless as death, and she embodies this indifference by choosing neither life nor death. She simply stays in the game, because those were the cards she was dealt. Maria’s indifference is reflected in the subdued atmosphere of her and BZ’s final moments tighter.
Active
Themes
The next thing Maria knows, Carter is shaking her awake. All the lights are on, and Helene is screaming. Maria closes her eyes to block out the light, Helene is screaming, and her thoughts about what will happen next. She squeezes BZ’s hand.
Active
Themes
