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Chapter 40
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Spectacular Things, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Sacrifice and Love
Dreams, Ambition, and Meaning
Love and Loss
Competition vs. Teamwork
Community
Summary
Analysis
In January, Cricket hears that she isn’t going to get invited to the next U.S. Women’s National Team training camp. That makes Cricket step up her training efforts as she prepares for the upcoming season at UCLA. Sloane isn’t invited to the National Team training camp either. In response, Sloane opts out of playing soccer at college and enters the National Women’s Soccer League draft. Cricket can’t believe what Sloane has done and also that Sloane didn’t tell her.
Again, this passage underlines the competitive tension underlying Sloane and Cricket’s friendship. Cricket feels unable to avoid comparing herself to Sloane, which seems to cause Cricket significant distress. The fact that Sloane didn’t tell Cricket about her decision to enter the draft also suggests that Sloane withheld that information to try and gain a career advantage over Cricket.
Themes
Cricket feels like Sloane has betrayed her, and she worries that Sloane has made a move that will put her ahead of Cricket in her career. Cricket tells Mia and Oliver her concerns. Mia and Oliver assure Cricket that she’s making the smart decision by going to college. They say that Cricket has to play the long game. Mia then moves the Steve Prefontaine poster to the back of the front door so that Cricket will see it every time she leaves the house.
Again, this passage makes clear how much distress the competition between Sloane and Cricket causes Cricket. The Steve Prefontaine poster then symbolizes the hard work that Cricket has to put in to fulfill her ambitions but also the familial connection that remains one of the most important parts of both Mia and Cricket’s lives, especially as that poster connects them both to Liz.
Themes
