95 pages • 3 hours read

Piecing Me Together

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2017

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-20

Chapters 21-40

Chapters 41-60

Chapters 61-76

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Quiz

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Language

Language is a motif woven throughout Piecing Me Together, underscoring themes of self-advocacy, self-exploration, and authentic mentorship. Language appears in multiple forms in the book: There is Jade’s enthusiasm for the Spanish language, Jade’s father encouraging her to read books, and the idea that Jade is “shy” and needs to learn speak up for herself. “I know Mr. Flores thinks he’s preparing us for surviving travel abroad, but these are questions my purpose is asking. I am finding a way to know these answers right here, right now” (49). Language also represents education, as when Jade recalls how her father encouraged her to be a reader: “Dad, I’m serious. You told me that knowing how to read words and knowing when to speak them is the most valuable commodity a person can have. You don’t remember saying that?” (74). Education, in this instance, becomes a vehicle for Jade to explore and express herself.

Language also relates to the theme of learning to listen. In Chapter 72, Jade and Sam’s reconciliation is put in terms of language and understanding: “When we misunderstand each other, we listen again. And again” (253). Maxine literally silences Jade out of embarrassment in Chapter 41. A moment of weakness and sadness for Jade is marked by an absence of words and an inability to speak: “I don’t want an explanation or an apology. That feeling comes again, tightness in chest, tears in eyes. My mouth on lockdown, no words coming out. But they are there; I feel them rising” (166). Jade also frames her freedom in terms of language, using a metaphor involving a tongue: “Sometimes I just want to let my tongue speak the way it pleases, let it be untamed and not bound by rules. Want to talk without watchful ears listening to judge me” (201).

Collage Art

Jade is a collagist and this type of art is a motif throughout the book, meant to underscore and explore the theme of intersectional identity. One of Jade’s main motivations of being a collagist is that she can transform the mundane into something sublime: “Tonight I am taking ugly and making beautiful” (25). In bringing together of pieces that do not necessarily fit together, collaging ties into the struggles Jade feels in trying to unite the disparate, sometimes conflicting parts of her intersectional, fragmented identity. In Chapter 21, she explicitly states that being a black girl requires her to endure being “shattered”: “But when I leave? It happens again. The shattering. And this makes me wonder if a black girl’s life is only about being stitched together and coming undone, being stitched together and coming undone” (86). She makes this reference again when confiding in Maxine that it feels like she is coming apart: “I tell her how I’ve been thinking about being stitched together and coming undone. ‘Do you ever feel that way?’ I ask” (214).

The Explorer York

York becomes a symbol for the African American community’s finding freedom in self-exploration and expression. York also represents a kind of hope that the success of his descendants—young, black girls like Jade—can right the wrongs of history.

Jade first learns about York in Chapter 6 in a conversation with Lee Lee. Immediately, Jade is taken with the idea of York, and he becomes the focus of many of her collages: Jade notices a mural of York in Chapter 29, and she takes a picture focused specifically on York: “I take a few photos of the mural. And on the last one, I zoom in on York’s face” (118). In Chapter 33, Jade completes her first collage featuring York; it explores the contradiction of her wanting to escape poverty while also loving her community and where she is from. In Chapter 51, Jade asks of York: “Did he even remember being human?” (194). The book concludes with Jade imagining her and York traveling and exploring together, finally free.

Violence Against African Americans

Violence against people of color—particularly, African American people in low-income communities—is a constant backdrop to Jade’s life. In Chapter 9, Jade recalls how her uncle E.J.’s best friend was a victim of gun violence: “Like the night E.J.’s best friend, Alan, was killed. Mom kept saying she had this bad feeling, a feeling that something bad was going to happen” (35). Chapter 47 introduces the story of Natasha Ramsey, a 15-year-old black teen who was manhandled by the police at a house party and is in the hospital in critical condition. Later, in Chapter 55, Jade, Lee Lee, and Lee Lee’s cousin Andrea come upon a scene in which white cops have pulled over a black woman. They watch fearfully and are relieved when the police give the woman a ticket and release her, but the incident leaves a lasting impression.