Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Memory and Meaning
Love and Vulnerability
Freedom
Art, Creativity, and Expression
Wonder and Knowledge
Summary
Analysis
New York City. September 4, 2013. Henry is born with a bad heart. Doctors fix it and send him home, but he grows up convinced something is still broken. His heart works now, but something doesn’t feel right. Some people say that he feels things too much. When Henry’s first dog died, he cried for a week. He can’t stand to hear his parents argue, and he took the breakup with Robbie badly. He’s also afraid of time.
Note that this chapter takes place in 2013, the year before the novel’s present. Presumably this is a flashback to the time that Henry made his deal with the darkness. This section is also important because it offers additional insight into Henry’s character, painting him as someone who is almost too attuned to his emotions, feeling everything too intensely and vulnerably.
Themes
Tabitha Masters is dancing when Henry first sees her. Henry went to see Robbie perform, but his eyes are drawn to Tabitha. They officially meet at an after-party. Henry needs three drinks to find the courage to approach her, but then it’s so easy to talk to her, and he falls in love by the end of that first night. They are together for two years. During that time, they never fight. So, when Henry proposes and Tabitha says no, Henry is shocked. Tabitha says Henry is “great,” but he’s just not the one.
The reader can assume that Henry’s breakup with Tabitha happens before he makes his deal, since post-deal Henry is seemingly incapable of being rejected or unwanted by anyone. Also note that Henry’s breakup with Tabitha further supports the novel’s central theme that vulnerability and uncertainty are fundamental parts of any intimate relationship or friendship.
Themes
After the breakup, Henry goes to a nearby liquor store and buys a bottle of vodka. His phone buzzes in his pocket as Bea and Robbie try to reach him, but he ignores it. Henry drops the bottle onto the sidewalk outside the store and it shatters. He tries to pick it up and cuts his hand on the broken glass, and he begins to bleed. He tries to clean himself up with the handkerchief, and the diamond engagement ring falls to the ground. Tabitha’s words of rejection echo inside his head. Henry wants to leave the ring, but it was expensive and he can’t afford to part with it, so he picks it up.
This scene clarifies that the ring that Addie found hidden away in Henry’s apartment likely was the ring with which he tried (and failed) to propose to Tabitha. Also, Henry’s cut hand explains the bloody handkerchief that Addie finds wrapped around the ring. Also, this scene suggests a parallel between Addie’s wooden ring and Henry’s engagement ring. Both rings at one time held positive associations for the respective characters, but then a negative event beyond either’s ability to control caused those positive associations to sour.
Themes
