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Chapter 16
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Midnight Library, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Regret, Depression, and Suicide
Philosophy and the Meaning of Life
Possibility and Perseverance
Embracing Imperfection
Summary
Analysis
In a business lounge shortly before she’s due to give her speech, Nora talks to her brother Joe, who seems to be her manager in this life. She struggles to keep up with what this version of herself is supposed to know, and she notices that her brother is happily married to a man named Ewan in this reality. Nora feels happy for him, and the two of them discuss the other paths Nora’s life could have taken; Joe insists that Nora would have become an exceptional person, no matter what.
This is the first conversation that Nora has with Joe in the novel, and she has mixed feelings during the interaction with this reality’s version of her brother. While she’s touched by his insistence that she would have turned out successful in any world, Nora knows deep down that this isn’t the case, as her original life in Bedford wasn’t what she’d call a success.
Themes
But Nora’s feeling of unease grows when she spots a box of anti-depressants in her bag. She asks Joe if either of them had visited their mother while she was on her deathbed. Joe reminds her that it had all happened very quickly because their mother hadn’t told them how sick she was, either to protect them and not interfere with their busy lives, or to avoid being scolded for her drinking. Nora is shaken by the idea that her mother had become an alcoholic in this life, but before she can process this, she’s beckoned out of the room, as it’s almost time for her to give her talk to all the people gathered in the hotel conference room.
Themes
