Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Reckoning, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Guilt and Legacy
Morality, Survival, and Perspective
Sexuality and Shame
Body Image and Publicity
Indifference vs. Feeling
Summary
Analysis
After seeing a photo of a newly thin Magda, a friend remarks that Magda won’t be able to play Sharon anymore. At 50, most women become invisible, but Magda is more visible: when she appears on the cover of a magazine in a black dress, people call her “hot.” When she walks on the street, people shout from cars, congratulating her on her weight loss but hoping she won’t lose too much, or she won’t be funny anymore. Magda feels like a “public utility”; is it true that her new body will change her inner person?
Magda’s position as a public figure exaggerates a common problem of body image. In a society overly fixated on physical appearance, a change weight could already lead to a crisis of identity and lead a person to question whether their other traits—their sense of humor, or their attractiveness, for example—have also changed. In Magda’s case, however, the public is constantly weighing in on these questions, thereby amplifying her anxiety.
Themes
In 2007, Magda enrolls in a weight loss program so that she can play the role of Jenny Craig. The program requires hard work and often makes Magda feel worthless; she feels like a decorative object and scrutinizes herself in mirrors. After losing 80 pounds, Magda looks like her cousin Magda. Although she is still technically obese, people flirt with Magda more. Losing weight comes with the misled expectation that you will be more sexually desirable. Magda wonders what becomes of a one’s sexual desire if their beloved’s form changes; she’s heard stories of people leaving partners who’ve lost weight, and vice versa.
Although Magda thought that her sexual desirability and her sexual desire transcended form and appearance, she starts to anxiously question this belief in response to the public’s thoughts on the matter.
Themes
One year, Magda goes camping with an eclectic group of girlfriends at Cape Leveque. Out of character, Magda runs to the beach along with the girls to play soccer; she is amazed by her speed and agility. It is thrilling but also destabilizing; she feels insubstantial and is aware of how fleeting the feeling will be.
Magda enjoys her new thinness, but she also feels that she has lost an essential part of herself—she feels insubstantial. This suggests the degree to which Magda’s life as a public figure has taught her to identify with her physical appearance.
Themes
