Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Such a Fun Age, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
External Behavior vs. Internal Truth
White Guilt, Ignorance, and Redemption
The Quest for Meaning
Race, Class, and Privilege
Summary
Analysis
Mrs. Chamberlain, the woman Emira babysits for, calls Emira late one Saturday night. She offers to pay Emira double to take care of two-year-old Briar. The police will be there soon, Mrs. Chamberlain explains, and she doesn’t want Briar to be there when they arrive. Mrs. Chamberlain mentions something about Peter and a “broken window,” but Emira is at her friend Shaunie’s 26th birthday party, and it’s too loud to hear much of what Mrs. Chamberlain is saying. Emira doesn’t want to leave the party—but her nearly empty bank account convinces her to take up Mrs. Chamberlain’s request.
Mrs. Chamberlain doesn’t specify what exactly is going on beyond the fact that they’re calling the police to their house over a “broken window.” How and why the window came to be broken remains a mystery, but it’s possible that the Chamberlains were targeted for some reason. That Emira abandons her friend’s party to make money—even though she doesn’t want to—shows the degree to which class shapes her life and decision-making. Somebody of greater means, for instance, would have the freedom to turn down Mrs. Chamberlain’s request.
Themes
Emira explains to Mrs. Chamberlain that she doesn’t “look” like a babysitter right now—she’s wearing heavy makeup and a bodycon dress. Also, she’s had a drink. Mrs. Chamberlain seems to realize she’s interrupting Emira’s night and apologetically tells her that she doesn’t have to leave her party. Emira can hear Catherine, the Chamberlains’ infant daughter, crying in the background, though, and tells Mrs. Chamberlain that she’ll be there soon. Emira gets ready to leave. Emira’s friend Zara offers to accompany her to the Chamberlain house. Josefa, their other friend, is upset about Emira and Zara bailing on Shaunie’s party. But Emira tells Josefa that Shaunie—who is very heavily intoxicated—is “leaving” her own birthday party, too.
That Josefa doesn’t seem to sympathize with Emira’s need to leave the party—she needs to babysit because she doesn’t have much money—suggests that, perhaps, Josefa comes from a wealthier background. This scene also shows how Mrs. Chamberlain’s better financial situation gives her more choices than Emira. That she (presumably) had disposable income grants her the freedom to hire Emira to look after Briar instead of having to deal with Briar herself. She can buy away her life’s stressors in a way that Emira, perhaps, cannot.
Themes
When Emira and Zara reach the Chamberlain residence, they can hear Catherine crying inside. Emira sees a small hole in the front window. A clear, slimy substance drips from the hole. Emira and Zara walk inside and find Mrs. Chamberlain arranging two-year-old Briar’s blond hair into a ponytail. Mrs. Chamberlain greets Zara politely, the way she always does.
It's unclear exactly what the slimy substance on the window is. But it could be an egg. Egging a house can either be a cruel but random prank, or it can be a targeted attack. It’s still possible that the Chamberlains have done something to make somebody mad at them, but the novel leaves this uncertain for now. Finally, the politeness with which Mrs. Chamberlain greets Zara suggests a certain distance between them. Even if Mrs. Chamberlain is polite with Emira and her friends, the fact that she and Emira have an employer-employee relationship instead of a friendship makes them treat each other impersonally.
Themes
Zara, Emira, and Briar leave the Chamberlain residence and walk to Market Depot, an upscale grocery store that sells things like bone broths and truffle butters. Once there, Emira carries Briar in her arms as Zara guffaws at an eight-dollar box of raisins. They wander around the store, and Emira waits for a call from Mrs. Chamberlain telling them it’s okay to come back. Zara plays Whitney Houston on her phone, and she, Briar, and Emira hold an impromptu dance party in the aisle. A gray-haired, middle-aged woman watches them and smiles at Briar.
The high-priced groceries that line the shelves of Market Depot, a supermarket local to the Chamberlains’ residence, visually demonstrates the class differences between the Chamberlains and Emira (and Zara). Mrs. Chamberlain possibly wouldn’t think twice about spending eight dollars on a box of raisins, while for Zara, the idea is ludicrous. Also note how the gray-haired woman is smiling at Briar alone—she’s seemingly happy to see a little white girl goof around in the grocery store but perhaps holds Zara, a Black woman, to a different set of standards.
Themes
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Zara gets a text and then tells Emira that she has to leave—she might have a chance to hook up with the boy she’d been talking to at the party that night. Emira half-jokingly reminds her friend that “that boy is real white.” Zara tells her friend, “It’s 2015, Emira! Yes we can!” Then she leaves. Emira and Briar continue to wander around the store.
Issues of race affect many aspects of Zara and Emira’s lives as young Black women, even this casual exchange about Zara’s potential hook-up. Zara’s quip “Yes we can!” is a reference to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign slogan. Zara is joking that since Obama’s election in 2008, Black people are equal and can do anything they want to do. Zara is making the quip to jokingly shame Emira for criticizing her desire to hook up with a white guy, but she’s simultaneously referencing the misguided attitude many racially privileged people hold that Obama’s election eradicated racism forever (when in reality, Black people and other people of color continue to experience racism in their daily lives).
Themes
Suddenly, a security guard approaches Emira and Briar. The gray-haired woman who’d watched them dancing earlier is standing behind the guard; the woman’s arms are folded in front of her chest. The security guard asks if Emira is Briar’s mother. Emira laughs—it should be obvious that the white child isn’t hers—and tries to explain that she’s Briar’s babysitter. But the guard won’t listen and twists Emira’s words. The gray-haired woman mentions that she saw them “booty-dancing” and thought that something didn’t seem right.
Sure enough, that the gray-haired woman was smiling at Briar—but not at Emira or Zara—was an ominous sign that she was judging Emira and Zara’s behavior on a higher set of standards. Briar’s dancing is innocent and acceptable, but Zara and Emira’s is scandalous “booty-dancing” and surely a sign that something is amiss with them. She racially profiles Emira and uses harmless behavior like dancing to accuse Emira of, it seems, the serious crime of kidnapping.
Themes
Emira tries to stay calm, but she’s agitated, especially after the security guard asks if she’s been drinking. Emira tells the guard that she’ll call Peter Chamberlain, the little girl’s father—he’s an old white man, which should satisfy everyone here. As she speaks with Peter, the guard tries to take Emira’s phone out of her hands. She lashes out at him. A man in the background has begun to film the scene; he tells Emira she might want a recording of the altercation later on.
It's true that Emira is wearing a party dress, has come from a party, and might not look the part of a babysitter. But this is only the case because Mrs. Chamberlain called her in a state of emergency to come help out. The treatment Emira is receiving here now suggests that as a Black woman, she’s held to a higher standard of behavior. Anything she does may be used against her, while the same isn’t necessarily true of somebody like Mrs. Chamberlain, whose class and race protect her.
Themes
Peter Chamberlain arrives. He yells at the guard for escalating the situation and for questioning his parenting. He is embarrassed and overly apologetic to Emira. He even offers to pay her on the spot, but Emira refuses—she’s always paid on Fridays, and there’s no need to change things now. Emira tells Briar she’ll see her at Briar’s birthday, then she leaves the store.
Just as Emira predicted, Peter Chamberlain’s presence suddenly—almost magically—resolves the issue. This suggests that the guard values Peter’s word over Emira’s, seemingly due to his status as a white, wealthy male. Peter’s flustered and angry response to the altercation shows how abnormal it is to him. It’s shocking to him because he doesn’t experience racial profiling directed toward him or toward people in his life. Emira’s refusal to accept an early payment—to accept special treatment—however, suggests that things like this have happened to her too often for her to make a fuss over it.
Themes
Outside, Emira runs into the man who videotaped Emira’s altercation with security. He insists that Emira forward the video to a news outlet—she could get an op-ed out of it, or at least a free year of groceries from Market Depot. But Emira insists that the man delete the video—what does she need a year’s worth of kombucha for anyway? The man insists that Emira at least let him email her the video before he deletes it in case she changes her mind later; Emira reluctantly acquiesces. Emira looks in her inbox and sees a new message from KelleyTCopeland@gmail.com. The man introduces himself as Kelley. Emira watches Kelley delete the video from his phone, then they part ways.
Like Peter Chamberlain, Kelley Copeland experiences racial profiling so rarely that he is compelled to make a big deal about Emira’s run-in with the Market Depot security guard. In his efforts to seek justice for Emira, though, he disregards her obvious wish to simply put the incident behind her. In the end, it’s Emira who must yield to his wishes, giving him her email address to send the video.
Themes
Emira doesn’t take a cab home, though she knows Mrs. Chamberlain would pay for it. She texts Zara to come over. When Zara arrives, Emira tells her about everything that happened. Zara can’t believe it—since when is the moon walk considered booty dancing? Emira jokes that everyone at the store decided that Emira was a better dancer than Zara. Zara rolls her eyes, but then she turns serious: things could have ended badly. Emira laughs, but then she starts to cry.
Though Emira acts unbothered by the Market Depot incident in public, her tears in this scene show that the incident has deeply affected her. This scene also shows that Emira’s level of comfort with visible emotional vulnerability varies depending on the people she’s around. Though she assumes a straight face in public, with Zara, who as a young Black woman, may be able to sympathize with Emira in ways that Kelley Copeland and Peter Chamberlain cannot, she abandons the charade of toughness and shows her hurt.
Themes
