Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Tell Me Three Things, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Blended Families
Intimacy and Growing Up
Wealth, Fitting In, and Bullying
Home
Friendship
Summary
Analysis
On Friday, Ethan is already in the library when Jessie gets there. Jessie fantasizes about touching his face but then reminds herself that he’s a jerk and she has better things to do. She sits down, acts cool, and thinks that Ethan smells like lavender and honey. Jessie wonders if he washes his shirt every night and then realizes that she sounds like Dri: obsessed. As Ethan asks if Jessie reads much poetry, Jessie recognizes his expression: he’s here, but he’s mentally somewhere else. Jessie realizes he’s exhausted, not on drugs, and then they start to discuss The Waste Land. As they discuss the first line, which mentions April, Ethan says he hates April and then looks inexplicably angry. He suggests they walk and talk and stands up before Jessie can say anything.
As Jessie recognizes that Ethan is exhausted and is sharing more than he might like to, she begins to develop a sense of intimacy with him—even if, at this point, it’s only one-sided. For that matter, it’s not necessarily a bad thing that Jessie sounds like Dri when she talks about how she’s noticing every little thing Ethan does—the novel implies that this is entirely normal.
Themes
Ethan slips on a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses and says that according to Google, Eliot was forced to cut 43 lines from the beginning of the poem—and he wasn’t working on a computer. Jessie says she hates writing on paper, since it’s too slow. Ethan asks Jessie to share more about herself. Jessie says there’s nothing to tell, but thinks that she hates December since her mom’s birthday is in December—and she wants to know everything about Ethan. Ethan recites the next several lines of The Waste Land from memory, which awes Jessie. He explains that he reads poetry when he can’t sleep.
Ethan’s sunglasses make him look even more unattainable and unknowable. They’re designer and make it clear that he’s very different from Jessie, who still doesn’t have her own pair of sunglasses. When Jessie mentions how much more she likes typing than writing, it’s a nod to how she’s able to edit herself and say what she really wants to say to SN. Since physical writing isn’t their main mode of communication, it doesn’t feel as easy to use.
Themes
Later, Jessie messages SN. They both had not-bad days. Jessie asks SN to tell her three things about himself, thinking that talking to Ethan made her reckless. SN writes that he makes an “amazeballs” grilled cheese sandwich and that he loved Justin Timberlake as a middle schooler, but he won’t offer a third thing. Then, it’s Jessie’s turn. She says that she has a theory that the universe is tiny and insignificant next to some larger species. She has a hard time remembering her multiplication tables, even though she can do calculus. When she refuses to offer a third thing, SN says his third thing is that he likes Jessie. Jessie writes that her third thing is that she likes SN, too.
Admitting they like each other ramps up the intimacy between Jessie and SN, as does sharing more about themselves.
Themes
Jessie immediately feels weird and reminds herself that she doesn’t know who SN is—but he (if SN even is a male Wood Valley student) knows everything about her. She messages him back and says they need to take it back a step, though he insists that “I like you” just means that he thinks she’s cool. She reminds him that it’s weird how much he knows and stops messaging him when he says that life isn’t fair. When Jessie picks up her phone a minute later, SN apologizes and says that he likes talking like this. He offers three more things: he likes books, music, and video games more than people; he still sleeps with his childhood blanket; and he was a different, happier person a year ago.
Though this is an understandably tense moment in their relationship, SN nevertheless listens to what Jessie is saying and lets her know that he understands how weird this is for her. He’s asking her to take a major leap of faith as she continues to trust him, which he acknowledges by sharing personal things like that he sleeps with his childhood blanket. However, this won’t be able to go on forever—facts like this cannot replace in-person connections in the long term.
Themes
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About a year ago, SN’s sister died suddenly. He asks about Jessie’s mom and they realize that they both count the days, hours, and minutes since their loved one died. Jessie decides not to ask about his sister. SN says that he saw a gorgeous rainbow yesterday but didn’t get a picture of it, but he hopes that Jessie can confirm that it happened so that he can be sure he’s not losing his mind. Jessie remembers seeing a brief rainbow—it seemed like a message from her mom—and taking a picture. She sends it to SN. When Liam texts asking Jessie to work tomorrow she accepts. He calls her a “lifesaver.” To SN, Jessie notes that so many normal expressions are about death.
Admitting that he lost his sister and that, like Jessie, he counts the days since he lost his loved one takes their relationship even further. Though SN hasn’t said much about his family thus far, it’s possible to imply that his family may be struggling just as much as Jessie’s is to deal with the grief—and he may be experiencing some of the same sense of anxiety and loss that Jessie is as he looks as his altered family structure.
Themes
Ethan then messages Jessie with the definition of the word “tuber,” which appears in The Waste Land. Jessie is thrilled to get a message from Ethan—it means he was thinking about her. Ethan suggests that tuber is a good insult and says that Gem and Crystal are tubers. Jessie feels horrible knowing that Ethan hears what Gem says. Today, Gem insulted the stickers on Jessie’s laptop, which Scarlett designed. When Jessie thanks Ethan for defending her, he reminds her that he didn’t and says she doesn’t look like she needs a defender. Jessie gets a notification from Instagram: Dri posted a picture of her and Jessie at lunch. Agnes has been cropped out. Scarlett texts that even if Jessie didn’t ask, she got her homecoming dress. Thrilled that she has four conversations going at once, Jessie screenshots it.
Jessie’s four conversations make her feel like she has it all. Gem may still be awful to her, but she at least has an engaged study partner, a confidante in SN, and friends in Dri and Scarlett. However, Scarlett’s language—that Jessie didn’t ask about her homecoming dress—suggests that despite Jessie’s happiness, not all is well. While Jessie’s conversations with SN are more or less equal in terms of who’s talking more and who’s sharing more, Jessie hasn’t asked Scarlett anything about life in Chicago thus far. Jessie isn’t listening, and this could easily cause problems later.
Themes
