Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Skin I’m In, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Bullying and Insecurity
Self-Esteem, Support, and Friendship
Writing and Self-Expression
The Importance of Role Models
Summary
Analysis
Maleeka’s alarm clock never rings when it’s supposed to, and so her mom always has to wake her up to go to school. Maleeka gets dressed, ignoring a new shirt her mom made and putting on a turtleneck that isn’t as bad because their neighbor helped her mom make it. Sweets often asks why Maleeka doesn’t tell her mom that she doesn’t want to wear the clothes, but Maleeka worries what might happen if her mother doesn’t keep sewing.
This chapter highlights some of the difficult dynamics between Maleeka and her mom. Maleeka doesn’t fully reveal why she allows her mother to sew her clothes, but she’s is sacrificing her own happiness at school in order to make her mother happy—a reversal of the typical parent-child dynamic wherein the parent makes sacrifices for the child.
Themes
In the kitchen, Maleeka’s mom is reading up on the stock market. She sews Maleeka’s clothes so that she can invest the money she saves, but often she just spends it buying lottery tickets or playing the stock market. Maleeka’s mom always looks for new ways to make money, though they’re still poor. A lot of people think her mom is crazy, but Maleeka knows that her mother is smart and has a big heart. She kisses her mom as she rushes out the door.
Even though Maleeka and her mom love each other, Maleeka recognizes that her mom doesn’t always model good behavior. She buys lottery tickets and tries to play the stocks rather than making sure that Maleeka has what she needs.
Themes
