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. April 6, 2014. Henry and Addie are sharing fries at a pub now. They finish their food just as their waiter returns to the kitchen. Addie gets up to leave. Henry insists that they pay, but Addie tells him that their waiter won’t remember serving them and will just be confused. Henry won’t budge, though. The waiter will remember Henry—he’s “the exact opposite of invisible.” The word “invisible” stings. Annoyed, Addie slams two twenties on the table. “Better?” she asks Henry. Henry asks Addie where she got the money. Addie doesn’t tell him that she shoplifted from a high-end store and sold her wares to a pawn shop. Now, Addie is upset. She tells Henry that she doesn’t need him to control and belittle her.
This scene marks a turning point in Addie and Henry’s relationship: it’s the first time they’ve had a fight. Addie’s reason for getting upset—she feels that Henry is trying to control her—also resonates with the book’s broader thesis that absolute love and freedom are mutually exclusive; that is, a person inevitably must be willing to give up some of their personal freedom and independence to experience genuine love with another person. Addie discovered this when she first made her deal with Luc, and she’s experiencing it all over again in this squabble with Henry. Her own moral acceptance of stealing used to be all the validation she needed to steal, but now she has Henry’s feelings and opinions to consider, too.
Themes
Addie ducks out of the pub. Before long, Henry is beside her. Addie asks if she ruined everything. Henry says it’s okay—they just had a fight. Addie has wanted love for so many years. She always assumed it would be easy—the opposite of what she had with Luc—but it’s not. Henry prompts Addie to continue her story. Did she ever return to Paris? Addie thinks about this first time she left France. She’d never thought to do it before Luc forced it on her. Now, she wonders if Luc “meant to cast her into chaos.” Maybe he just wanted her to beg for his help.
Addie has believed that genuine love is characterized by harmony and certainty—but what she learns from her fight and reconciliation with Henry is that love is really about trusting another person enough to be able to dwell in uncertainty and discord together. The “chaos” that she experienced with Luc was different because it wasn’t rooted in mutual vulnerability—it was caused by Luc’s selfish efforts to disarm and control her.
Themes
