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 calls for Briar to come to her. In the back of her head, she wonders what would happen if she just scooped her up and ran away with her. She squats down and tells Briar to look at her. As Emira watches Briar brush a lock of hair out of her eyes, she realizes that this is really goodbye. Emira tries to convey this to Briar, but she realizes that Briar is too young to understand what it means to say goodbye. In the distance, Zara continues to make a scene, Tamra yells at Zara to stop, and Mrs. Chamberlain asks where Briar is. Emira kisses Briar’s cheek and smells her scent one last time. Then Zara appears and tells Emira that they need to get out of here. Emira tells her to order an Uber. Then she turns back toward Briar.
Emira may have gone out with a bang, but only because her circumstances offered her no other means to defend herself. Given how deeply Emira cares for Briar, it’s unlikely that she wants to resign from her babysitting position in a way that harms Briar. And yet, Alix has repeatedly gone against Emira’s wishes and betrayed her trust, and so she has left Emira with no good way to say goodbye. This is a tender moment between Emira and Briar and reaffirms how, despite all the psychological warfare, manipulation, and power plays Emira has endured in her time spent working for the Chamberlains, she has not wavered in her sincere commitment to making Briar feel loved, seen, and understood.
Themes
When Emira turns around again, Mrs. Chamberlain is there. In a purposeful, powerful voice, she tells Emira to get away from Briar. Emira looks at Mrs. Chamberlain, amazed that she’s really going to end things by “playing the matchless mom card.” In all the time Emira has worked for her, this is the most concern Mrs. Chamberlain has ever shown for Briar—and ironically, it’s “the safest place Briar could ever be.”
In this moment, Alix becomes the gray-haired woman at Market Depot who racially profiled Emira and set into motion the central conflicts of the novel. It’s a particularly cruel power play on Alix’s part, since Alix, after all this time, must know that “the safest place Briar could ever be” is with Emira, and yet she ruins Emira and Briar’s meaningful and emotional goodbye to put Emira in her place for humiliating her on live TV. Alix is effectively showing Emira that even if Emira is right and Alix is wrong, none of this matters, since Emira is the belligerent Black woman who made a scene in a now-viral video. In contrast, Alix is the wealthy white woman who, outwardly, society will deem more trustworthy.
Themes
Emira realizes she doesn’t have her backpack. Zara motions toward the stairs—Emira will have to walk past Mrs. Chamberlain to get it. She does this, even as Mrs. Chamberlain screams at her to stop. Finally, Emira can’t ignore Mrs. Chamberlain any longer, and they speak face-to-face. Mrs. Chamberlain demands to know what Emira was thinking when she sabotaged the interview. “You. Just humiliated me and my entire business,” she says. She asks Emira if she decided to work for the Green Party just because Mrs. Chamberlain is working for the Clinton campaign. Amused, Emira tells Mrs. Chamberlain that she was working for the Green Party way before she’d even met Mrs. Chamberlain. Mrs. Chamberlain is totally shocked, and Emira thinks about pointing out how despite Mrs. Chamberlain’s supposed interest in getting to know Emira, she really doesn’t know anything about Emira at all. But Emira decides it’s not worth it and brushes past her to retrieve her backpack instead.
Again, Alix reconfigures reality to make herself the victim and Emira the aggressor. Alix claims that Emira has “humiliated” her but completely ignores the countless ways she has humiliated, betrayed, and manipulated Emira over the time she’s worked for the Chamberlains. She further makes herself the center of attention when she suggests that Emira only decided to work for the Green Party, an opposing political party, to spite and antagonize Alix, whose alliances lay with Hillary Clinton. Alix is presumptuous enough to believe that Emira has rearranged her future to get back at Alix. But the irony is that Alix’s accusations are mere protection. Emira has never done anything specifically to spite Alix—at least not before today’s interview. Instead, it’s been Alix who has reconfigured her life to complete her mission of getting back at Kelley Copeland for their breakup which is, by now, ancient history.
Themes
“All of this was for you!” screams Mrs. Chamberlain. Emira realizes that there’s no way she can convince Mrs. Chamberlain that her actions were wrong. So instead, she offers Mrs. Chamberlain some advice that might actually help her. She tells Mrs. Chamberlain to start caring about Briar. Because Briar has already started to realize that her mother doesn’t like her—and soon, she’ll really know. Mrs. Chamberlain can’t keep “waiting for her to change.” The entire room goes silent. Mrs. Chamberlain doesn’t respond—she can only stare back at Emira with an “empty and embarrassed” expression. Then Zara and Emira leave the Chamberlains’ for the last time.
Alix hurls this line at Emira, purportedly to shame Emira and make Emira feel bad about embarrassing her on live TV. Yet for Emira—and for the reader—it couldn’t be clearer that most of Alix’s actions have been not for Emira, but for Alix herself. Every attempt she’s made to help Emira has really been to make Alix herself look good in front of others or prove that she’s not like her elitist, problematic parents. When Emira realizes that that there’s no convincing Alix of this fact, it shows that Emira has fully come to terms with how seriously Alix’s privilege corrupts and limits her ability to assess her motivations objectively and be considerate of people who have less privilege. Emira’s parting advice to Alix is harsh, but ultimately, Emira doesn’t offer it to be cruel—she offers it for Briar’s sake, so that she might one day have a mother who takes an active interest in her life. This says a lot about Emira’s character. In this end, she makes a genuine effort to do good by Briar. And this effort is much more genuine and actionable than any attempt Alix has made to help Emira.
Themes
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