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Chapter 9: Things You Wish For
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in When You Reach Me, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Friendship
Coming of Age
Nonjudgment
Second Chances
Survival and Support
Summary
Analysis
Miranda —thinks back to the day after Sal got punched. Louisa lets him have a “mental health day,” which means Miranda must walk to and from school alone. On the way home, the kid who punched Sal begins to follow her. She turns around and asks him if he knows the time. Squinting at a building on Broadway, he says confidently, “three-sixteen.” Then he explains that the sun started going behind the building at 3:12 the previous afternoon day before. Based on the sun’s position now, he guessed the time. He doesn’t have a watch, he confesses.
In the present of this story, Miranda doesn’t know that the friendship she had with Sal is over as she knew it—but the Miranda who’s telling the story (and thus readers) knows it. Thus, it’s interesting that on the day she loses Sal, she potentially starts befriending the boy who hit him. It’s not much, but he’s changed in her estimation from a terrifying bully to somewhat normal human being.
Active
Themes
Miranda doesn’t feel scared anymore. But she does feel like she’s betraying Sal by being friendly to the kid who punched Sal. She says goodbye and hurries to her own block. When she looks back, the kid is gone, so she surmises he lives in the dreary-looking apartment building above the parking garage.
Active
Themes
