82 pages • 2 hours read
Elizabeth AcevedoWith the Fire on High
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Part 3, Chapters 108-113Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3: “The Bittersweet”
Part 3, Chapters 108-113 Summary
Emoni has made up her mind regarding college but has not yet told anyone. Malachi talks with her in the cafeteria as he noticed she has been looking sad, and he tells her that things will work out. In “Accepted,” Tyrone shows up at Emoni’s house and tells her that he has gotten a job and wants to help more with Emma financially. However, he also asks for extended visiting hours with his child.
Prom is approaching, but Emoni tells ’Buela she does not want to go and cannot afford it. Instead, on the night of the prom, Malachi leaves early and joins Emoni at her house, where she cooks some “delicious snacks.”
Julio visits a month early to attend Emoni’s graduation ceremony. He also reveals that he didn’t used to like eating Emoni’s cooking because it reminded him of her dead mother. However, he now eats the bread she has just baked and promises to stay longer. At the school graduation ceremony, Mr. Jagoda takes a picture of Emoni, Julio, and her classmates. Emoni’s friends and their families are invited back to her house afterwards for a graduation lunch.
Emoni visits Café Sorrel again and asks Chef Williams for a job there. She says she will balance this work with attending Drexel’s Culinary Arts program on a part time basis. Chef Williams says that Emoni can start work that very day.
Part 3, Chapters 108-113 Analysis
Just like Emoni’s choosing not to have sex is a sign of maturity, so is her deciding not to attend the school prom. That other socially prescribed rite of passage is not something she is willing to be pressured into, even by her grandmother. Instead she stays at home, cooking, and creates an experience and memory that is unique to her.
Furthermore, maturity is about taking ownership over one’s choices. As Emoni says, reflecting on what she will do after college, “I feel like I’m being pulled in a hundred directions” (360). That is not to say that maturity means discounting advice. Indeed, Emoni takes on board the supporting words of ’Buela, Angelica, and Malachi. However, it does mean acknowledging the outside forces acting on you or trying to push you down certain paths. It also means realizing that only you, and not a counselor or parent, however well-meaning, can make the decisions about this path. Emoni’s choice at the end of the novel epitomizes this idea. She chooses neither to attend college full time nor to go straight into full-time work. Instead she decides to balance the two, going to college part time, and working part time at Café Sorrel. Her decision takes bravery, involving resisting her teacher’s advice and going directly to the restaurant to ask for a job. It a choice, however, that is uniquely hers, and the result of her own distinct situation and experience.
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By Elizabeth Acevedo
