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Chapter 7
Themes
and Colors
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
Startled, Nora turns around and sees a familiar woman who looks to be about 60 years old. Nora recognizes the woman as her old school librarian, Mrs. Elm, looking exactly as Nora remembers her from those days. Nora remembers that day in the library when Mrs. Elm had gotten the phone call and informed Nora that her father had passed away. Nora’s father had died of a heart attack on the rugby field at the boarding school where he worked. She remembers Mrs. Elm comforting her in the library after breaking the terrible news. Back in the present, she asks Mrs. Elm if she’s dead, and whether this is the afterlife.
The revelation about the phone call at the beginning of the novel comes at a significant moment; as Nora sees the version of Mrs. Elm from her memories, she instantly remembers how Mrs. Elm had been a helpful and consoling figure in Nora’s life. This hints at Mrs. Elm’s possible role in this strange library, and her completely unchanged appearance reinforces the idea that anything is possible here.
Active
Themes
Mrs. Elm explains that Nora is now in a library that exists between life and death. While Nora is here, she’s not quite alive but not quite dead either. In this Midnight Library, Nora will have the chance to try other lives and see how things would have played out if she had made different choices. Nora still expresses a desire to die and no longer exist, but Mrs. Elm says that death will come to her when it’s her time. And in the meantime, it’s up to Nora to choose a new life she wants to live.
In this moment, the premise of Nora’s potential journey is revealed. While the exact nature of the Midnight Library remains mysterious, Mrs. Elm immediately takes on the role of a mentor figure—just as before—and begins to give Nora advice. If what Mrs. Elm says is true, the library truly is a place of infinite possibilities.
Active
Themes
The shelves surrounding Nora and Mrs. Elm begin to move, quickly and smoothly shifting the endless books around on their own. Mrs. Elm tells Nora that it’s time to begin, and reiterates that Nora gets to choose a new life to experience, as each book on the shelves represents just one of an infinite number of possible lives that Nora could have lived if she had made a decision differently. Bewildered, Nora thinks this is impossible, but Mrs. Elm seems to read her thoughts and tells her that all of this is real. She also pulls a book off the shelf and hands it to Nora, informing her that this is the only book in the library that doesn’t contain one of Nora’s possible lives. She says that it’s something Nora has written, “without ever having to type a word.”
