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Chapter 49
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Ambition vs. Morality
Femininity, Sexuality, and Power
Truth and Identity
Family
Summary
Analysis
Back in the present, Evelyn tells Monique they should pause the interview. Monique agrees, checking her phone to see two missed calls from David, one from Frankie, and one from Monique’s mother. On her way home, she listens to her mom’s voice mail first, in which her mom reminds her that her flight will get in on Friday evening and tells her not to meet her at the airport (Monique texts back to say she’ll meet her at the airport anyway). Next, she learns from David’s voice mail that he's at her apartment right now, waiting to talk.
It's clear from the state of Monique’s inbox that she’s been ignoring her relationships and obligations to focus on Evelyn’s story, which has become particularly complex and engrossing. But Monique can’t avoid these things by avoiding her phone: the physical presences of David and her mother bring her back to reality.
Active
Themes
Monique hurries home. When she sees David in her kitchen, she remembers the things that drew her to him in the first place. He was white, so he’d never tell her she wasn’t Black enough; he didn’t read much, so he wouldn’t criticize her writing; he was less attractive than her, which meant he wouldn’t leave. She realizes that she chose David to avoid being challenged. David says he came back to set their relationship right. He thinks that they should keep trying to make it work. But Evelyn knows she doesn’t feel heartbroken that they broke up: she feels defeated because her marriage failed—because it was the wrong marriage to begin with.
Monique’s attraction to David is in fact more of an attraction to the kind of relationship she can have with him, one in which she feels she has the upper hand and won’t be intimidated or hurt. She’s quicker to realize this than David is, possibly because her interviews are helping to see herself as someone like Evelyn—ambitious, but with a desire to retain control that could hurt herself and others. She now sees her relationship through a pragmatic lens: it’s not a romantic failure, just a bad fit.
Active
Themes
Monique tells David he should go back to San Francisco, adding that he never felt like her “other half.” He leaves without saying much. The next morning, Frankie calls Monique to arrange the details of the photo shoot. Monique and Evelyn agree that they’ll shoot at the apartment. Evelyn suggests Friday, which shocks Monique: it’s only three days away. Evelyn tells Monique she should be pleased by the fast pace, because by then, she’ll have all the answers she wants.
Active
Themes
