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 has only been working as a receptionist for the Green Party for five weeks when, at a fundraising event, she helps a little boy transfer some crackers from a flimsy plate to a paper cup. The boy turns out to be the child of Paula Christi, the regional director of the U.S. Census Bureau. Paula hires Emira as an administrative assistant. Emira spends the next two years working for her.
That Emira’s knack for childcare is what lands her a new job is telling—one wonders why she doesn’t pursue this career path if she enjoys it and is good at it. Perhaps the tricky power dynamics involved in working for wealthy people isn’t worth it. Or perhaps society’s undervaluation of domestic labor still prevents her from seeing childcare as a worthwhile career.
Themes
Just before her 28th birthday, Paula asks Emira if she has plans to leave soon—no other administrative assistant has stuck around so long without moving on to bigger things. But Emira has no plans to leave. She might not be as successful as her friends—Shaunie is engaged, Josefa is teaching at Drexel, and Zara is supporting herself and her sister—but she’s content. She was able to join her friends in Mexico, she has a savings account, and she makes her bed every day. And Paula is a supportive boss who isn’t threatened by Emira’s success. After she’s been working for Paula for four years, she’s making over $50,000.
Emira is content working for Paula because the job offers her a steady income and a boss who doesn’t manipulate her for personal gain or betray her trust. It speaks to how mistreated Emira really was working for Alix that she would prefer this job, about which she doesn’t seem to be all that passionate, to caring for Briar, which was something Emira was highly invested in. It also shows just how significantly the quest for financial security influences Emira’s big life decisions.
Themes
After the news segment first aired, Emira had wondered if she’d hear from Kelley. She finally did, one week later. He texted her to say that he was proud of her and knew she could do it. But that’s all. Emira is disappointed, but she also knows that there’s no world in which she and Kelley will ever get back together.
Kelley’s supportive but impersonal response suggests that his and Emira’s relationship is over. Perhaps this speaks to how little she meant to him in the long run—perhaps, as Alix suspected, he was more into the idea of Emira, of her Blackness, than he was Emira herself, and this is why he’s so ready to part ways with her.
Themes
Emira sees Kelley one more time, though he doesn’t see her. She’s at a farmer’s market with Shaunie, and they’ve gotten separated. As Emira browses the produce tables, she sees Kelley Copeland holding hands with a light-skinned Black woman. The woman asks Kelley to hold her smoothie while she checks out another table, and he replies, “Okay, miss.” If things were different, Emira would have texted Mrs. Chamberlain to tell her: “Because even though Kelley had been right about her, Alix had been right about him too.” She wonders if things could have been different if she’d called Mrs. Chamberlain by her first name. But things happened the way they did, and so Emira doesn’t reach out.
This scene all but confirms that Alix’s concerns about Kelley fetishizing Black people were true; the detail of Kelley calling his new girlfriend “miss,” just as he did with Emira before this woman, reinforces how easily he switches out old Black girlfriends for new ones. He calls them by the same pet name because they fulfill the same role for him. Emira’s slight temptation to call Mrs. Chamberlain to tell her about this encounter reveals more about Emira’s character. After all that Mrs. Chamberlain did to her, Emira’s natural instinct is to sympathize with and forgive her.
Themes
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The same year that Emira sees Kelley, she also spots Mrs. Chamberlain, Briar, and Catherine. It’s only a few days before Halloween, and they’re at a carnival in Rittenhouse Square. Emira hides, not wanting them to see her. She watches as five-year-old Briar, who is wearing a hamburger costume, tries to reach a pumpkin propped up against a brick ledge. Briar turns around to two Black nannies and asks them to help her—Alix is preoccupied with Catherine. The nannies are amused by Briar, and they help her. Mrs. Chamberlain turns around, thanks the women, and apologizes.
This is undoubtedly an emotional moment for Emira, given how much Briar meant to her. The scene is also painful since it shows how accustomed Briar has become to accepting help from Black domestic staff—her motion to ask these women for help is innocent now, but over time, it’s possible that her privilege will acclimate her to expect people with less privilege than her to help her.
Themes
Much later, in her thirties, Emira will still struggle to decide what her time working for the Chamberlains meant to her. Some days, she hopes that Briar has become independent and capable. Other days, she wonders if Briar will give up trying to find out who she is and the person she wants to be, and instead “just hire someone to do it for her.”
Emira wonders whether the things she taught Briar will be enough to encourage Briar to think for herself—or whether the privilege she’s inherited from Alix will outweigh this and allow Briar to become just as superficial and entitled as Alix was before her. After all, Alix was once ashamed of her parents’ wealth—and then she turned around and became just like them anyway.
Themes
