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 her experience with Who Do You Think You Are, Magda questions whether she has the courage her ancestors had to do the right thing. When a director asks her to make a statement supporting gay marriage, Magda wonders if it is time to come out; she is afraid of the public’s reaction, but she knows that she will regret never coming out. Sensing an opportunity to make change, Magda calls a veteran gay advocate, Kerryn Sticker-Phelps; Kerryn arranges for Magda to appear on The Project on Valentine’s Day, 2012.
Ultimately, Magda’s ancestors’ feats of courage embolden Magda to come out about her sexuality. In doing so, she feels that she is following in their footsteps, doing what “the right thing” is in the context of her own life. Significantly, this “right thing” does not require actions identical to her ancestors’; rather, this “right thing” is unique to Magda’s life.
Themes
Magda asks Barb and Chris to attend the broadcast of The Project in person on Valentine’s Day; they promise they will. When Magda invites Margaret, Margaret gives her cautious blessing. Margaret says that Magda owes her parents nothing; rather, they owe her. Magda wonders what she should come out as: she is neither fully lesbian, nor bisexual. After discussing it with a friend, Magda releases a statement supporting gay marriage; the “we” in the statement are the people one encounters in daily life, the public speculates. Knowing people will bother her at home, Magda stays in a hotel with Margaret and Barb.
Magda’s coming out seems to be more about being open with her family than open with the public. She takes the care to invite Margaret and her siblings, even choosing to stay in a hotel with them instead of having to answer questions from the paparazzi from home. Despite being a public figure, Magda’s journey to self-acceptance has had nothing to do with her public image; rather, it is about being true to herself among her loved ones.
Themes
The day of the show, Magda’s family and friends gather in the studio of The Project. Magda is more nervous than she has ever been. She wants to create a moment of understanding that cuts through gay rights clichés. When the panelists ask, Magda says, in lieu of a word to describe herself, that she is gay and a bit not gay. Catching sight of Margaret in the crowd, Magda prays to the Poles and the Irish. Next morning, Magda finds only positive responses in the paper. A few days later, Margaret relays to Magda love from her Catholic friend whom Margaret feared she would lose over Magda’s coming out; Magda is touched that Margaret had been willing to lose a friend in supporting her daughter.
At this point, the gay rights movement has begun. However, Magda’s action of coming out is not about joining this movement with the same herd instinct in which she has concealed her sexuality for so long. Rather, she wants her admission to catalyze change and create a stir. In this effort, Magda does not simplify her sexuality, which has in fact never been simple. In resisting making her complicated and variable sexuality palatable to the public, Magda paves the way for freedom of diverse and self-defined expression.
Themes
