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
After Jessie and Ethan sit with their coffees at Starbucks, Ethan notes that Jessie looks out of it and is staring. He asks how her weekend was, which Jessie thinks could be evidence for or against him being SN. She says it was rocky at first but hard to leave, which is kind of true. She doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere. Ethan then compliments the new sticker from Scarlett. Jessie wants to crawl into his lap and ask him so many things, but she settles on asking why he doesn’t sleep. He says he’s just weird, but it’s gotten worse in the last year. He confirms that he has indeed memorized the first part of The Waste Land. Jessie blurts out that she’s sorry about Xander. She wants to tell him that everything will get better, but she doesn’t.
If Ethan is SN, he clearly still wants to stay undercover for as long as possible—otherwise he would’ve insisted they do something today, when he’s already with Jessie. Whoever SN is, hiding and prolonging his big reveal allows SN to cling to the relationship that he and Jessie have right now, which is still comfortable for him even if it can’t last forever. Jessie’s sense that she doesn’t belong is a product of discovering that Chicago no longer feels like home. However, since she doesn’t know who SN is yet, Jessie also can’t feel entirely secure in Los Angeles either.
Themes
Ethan stares out the window and says that Jessie is the only person who didn’t know him while Xander was alive. Now, everyone else assumes that Ethan is like Xander or thinks that Ethan should be fine. Jessie totally gets it if Ethan just needs someone who didn’t know him before. Ethan abruptly changes the subject and says that Liam is going to ask Jessie out. Jessie doesn’t know what to say. She’s not sure if Ethan is SN, but she knows that her crush on Ethan is real. Jessie says she doesn’t want Liam to ask her out, so Ethan suggests she say no. Later, Jessie replays the conversation as SN texts that he’s nervous to meet.
For Ethan, his friendship with Jessie allowed him to figure out who he is without baggage that turns him into an object of curiosity for so many. In a way, omitting that his brother died allowed Jessie and Ethan to cultivate a different kind of intimacy, if only because Jessie has had the opportunity to see who Ethan really is—that is, to understand that Ethan doesn’t do drugs like his brother did. Then, because of her own experience, Jessie is also able to understand that he’s still grieving.
Themes
Minutes after, Scarlett texts—she just discovered she can order birth control online and doesn’t want to go to the gynecologist. Jessie tells her to go to the doctor. Ethan texts and says they need to start writing their paper and should start meeting more than once a week. Jessie agrees and dances around her room. SN messages Jessie to tell her that when people used telegraphs, they wrote in code, just like people do now with abbreviations like “ttyl.”
Again, taking this authoritative role with Scarlett and encouraging her to go to the doctor allows Jessie to demonstrate that she’s engaged and paying attention—she doesn’t want Scarlett to end up with fake medicine or something dangerous because she was too afraid to see a doctor.
Themes
