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
Emira and Kelley stay for dinner. Emira compliments Alix’s decorations, even though she thinks they’re ugly. Alix, still flustered, tries to explain that they were meant to be a joke, but Jodi cuts her off and says that they’re nice. Alix is grateful for her friend’s support. Everyone starts to eat. Alix listens to the sound of clunking silverware. It might sound like Thanksgiving, but everything feels so wrong.
So much of Alix’s life—from her business to her personal affairs—relies on her ability to control her surroundings and curate her version of perfection. But Kelley’s appearance shows her the limitations of this. For even though it sounds and appears like Thanksgiving, everything feels—and is—all wrong.
Themes
Peter asks Emira and Kelley how they met. Alix watches Emira and Kelley look at each other, clearly unsure of what to say. When neither speaks, Alix tells everyone that they met on the train. But Kelley corrects her and tells the table that he and Emira actually met at Market Depot the night that Emira was being held by the police. Suddenly, Peter remembers seeing Kelley there—he was the one who recorded the incident on his phone. Tamra seems excited to hear that there’s a video of the altercation out there. Meanwhile, Kelley tells everyone that the video is Emira’s property now. Alix feels betrayed by Emira lying to her about where she and Kelley met.
Alix announces that Emira and Kelley met on a train because this is what Emira had told her when she asked—but Emira lied then, because doing so was less awkward than having to mention the Market Depot incident yet again. However, Kelley doesn’t know that Emira lied to Alix, so to him, it may seem as though Alix is lying about where he and Emira met to conceal the fact that she sent Emira into a situation that led to Emira being racially profiled.
Themes
Peter thanks Kelley for recording the incident. He also says he’s glad that something good could come out of such an awful night. And, knowing now that a video exists, he reminds Emira that she could totally sue Market Depot if she wanted. Emira reiterates that she has no desire to share the video, and then she changes the subject to ask Alix and Peter how they met. Peter tells the story about how Alix “pursue[d]” him in an awful dive bar. Alix has heard Peter tell the story a million times, but this is the first time it’s annoyed her—Kelley’s presence makes her incredibly self-conscious. Tamra asks Alix if she met Peter when she was working at Hunter, and Alix says yes—though she wishes she could tell Emira and Kelley that the reason she frequented dive bars back then was that she was making under $40,000.
Peter is yet another well-intentioned white person in Emira’s life who thinks they know what’s best for her—who thinks that the payoff of going public with the video will be worth the emotional labor involved in that endeavor. And yet, as is evident with her words and the swiftness with which she changes the subject, Emira has no desire to share the video. Alix’s desire to let Kelley and Emira know that she was making $40,000 back when she worked at Hunter reinforces how guilty she feels about her privilege. At the same time, though, her desire for Emira to relate to her also reinforces her privilege. Alix might not have been making much, but she had a salaried position that gave her opportunities for networking and career advancement.
Themes
Kelley changes the subject, theatrically asking Alix about the book she’s working on—Emira has told him it’s a “history” book. Alix’s friends and Peter laugh at this. Alix blushes, then she explains that the book is really just a history of her business—a collection of the most important letters she’s written and received over the years. Kelley asks Alix when she started her business. When she tells him 2009, he rudely observes that this isn’t much of a history. Finally—to Alix’s relief and horror—Peter decides to make a toast. He thanks the strong women in Alix’s life—Emira included—who have supported her as she grows her business.
Just as Emira’s white lie to Alix about how she and Kelley met backfires, so too does Alix’s white lie about writing a history book (when all she’s really doing is compiling letters she’s received over the years). Little by little, Alix’s carefully curated, superficial world starts to crumple as her lies come to light and reveal that she’s not as successful or fulfilled as she presents herself as being.
Themes
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