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Chapter 3
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Vox, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Action, Complacency, and Resistance
Language, Communication, and Power
Children, Indoctrination, and Acclimatization
Control, Religion, and Gender Essentialism
Choice and Personal Fulfillment
Summary
Analysis
While Patrick, Steven, Leo, and Sam sit outside and talk about their days, Jean traces letters on her palm. These days, women only get 100 words per day. All her books, even her cookbooks, are locked up away from Sonia; Patrick has the keys. Some things haven’t changed, like trips to the grocery store and the hair salon (though Jean hasn’t changed her cut, as it would waste words to tell her stylist what she wants). All she reads are ingredients lists, billboards, and washing instructions. On Sundays, Patrick and Jean take the kids to the movies.
Only now does Jean share that women are limited to speaking 100 words per day. The thought is mind-boggling, as even this summary cell contains just under 100 words. This speaks to how constrained women’s lives are in this present, especially since they’re also mostly cut off from learning anything new. How is Jean—or any woman—supposed to learn a new recipe if she can’t even have her cookbooks, or talk about it with a friend?
Active
Themes
At first, Jean would write notes to Patrick, but she stopped when Sonia saw a lipstick note on the mirror and said, “Letters! Bad!” These days, “[w]ith Steven the way he is now,” she doesn’t even dare to write Patrick notes and then burn them. Listening to her husband and sons, Jean remembers Jackie telling her, “Think about what you need to do to stay free.” It would’ve been good to do “more than fuck all.”
