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Chapter 41
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
Cricket graduates from high school. Afterward, Oliver, Mia, and Cricket go to the Italian restaurant, Primo Bistro, where Liz once worked. Mia surprises Cricket by inviting Sloane to join them. Mia is concerned about how the surprise will go over with Cricket, but Cricket quickly relaxes around Sloane. They then all give gifts to Cricket. Sloane gives Cricket a charm bracelet. Oliver gives her a credit card that offers generous rewards miles so she can fly back to Maine when she wants to. And Mia gives Cricket the Steve Prefontaine poster to bring to UCLA. Sloane then lets slip that this weekend, at Teague’s suggestion, she’ll be working out with the official trainer of the U.S. Women’s National Team. Cricket again feels like Sloane is one step ahead of her.
Notably, Mia holds the dinner to celebrate Cricket’s graduation from high school at Primo Bistro, further underlining the important role that the tight-knit community of Victory, Maine, plays in Mia and Cricket’s lives. Mia also worries that she made a mistake inviting Sloane to the dinner. Cricket’s happy reaction to Sloane’s presence, though, shows that underneath the competition between the two, Cricket and Sloane remain friends. However, during that dinner, which is intended to celebrate Cricket, Sloane also says that she is working with the U.S. team’s trainer, once more highlighting the competition between the two.
Themes
