56 pages • 1 hour read
Karina Yan GlaserA Duet For Home
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
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BetaSymbols & Motifs
Lime Jellybeans
Huey House receives a donation of lime jellybeans, and Tyrell and Jeremiah move the boxes of jellybeans and use them to win over various employees. As the narrative states, “[They] had ‘relocated’ the candy to their own hiding place and used it to bribe the security and maintenance staff when they needed a favor” (102). In Huey House, the jellybeans therefore become a symbol of currency, and Tyrell and Jeremiah show June how the system works. For example, on their way to the chapel, they pass Humberto and give him a jellybean, and Humberto “salute[s] the boys and [goes] back to his mopping as if nothing had happened” (153). As this scene demonstrates, the jellybeans also operate on a playful level. Aside from Ms. MacMillan, the staff and the residents get along well, so although jellybeans do not necessarily make an effective bribe, the boys’ habit of passing them around adds charm to the employees’ day.
The Chapel
When June needs a place to practice her viola, Jeremiah and Tyrell take her to the chapel, which comes to represent a secure location. This area used to be part of a tuberculosis ward, and because Ms. MacMillan is afraid of germs, she doesn’t go into the chapel. The absence of the novel’s chief antagonist provides June with a degree of reassurance and safety, especially since the woman’s proliferation of laws and regulations has prevented people from pursuing meaningful hobbies, like playing the viola. Because the chapel is beyond Ms. MacMillan’s jurisdiction, June can practice the viola in peace, and Tyrell practices with her. The implicit meanings of the chapel are also designed to strike a note of irony, given that the chapel area was once contaminated by tuberculosis and is now one of the safest spaces in Huey House. The symbol therefore upends common and ignorant assumptions, emphasizing that unhoused people are not contagious or harmful. Instead, the toxic actors in this situation are the people in power, like Ms. MacMillan and Mr. Fernsby, who perpetuate policies that make the lives of unhoused people even more precarious.
The Label “Big Sister”
The symbolic meanings of the term “big sister” shift considerably throughout the novel, but June ultimately realizes that the label is overwhelmingly positive. As the narrative states, “Jèhjè was what her parents had always called her; it meant big sister” (183); however, when Mrs. Yang calls June jèhjè, June angrily shuts the door and leaves their Huey House room, resentful of her mother. After the contentious meeting about HSP, Mrs. Yang approaches June and calls her jèhjè, and once again, the term prompts June to act hastily. June’s actions indicate that she links the term jèhjè to situations involving bullying. She thinks that her mother is taunting her by using the name, and even if her mother isn’t purposefully trying to harm June, the term triggers the girl and holds negative connotations during these scenes. June’s attitude is made clear when Ms. Gonazlez suggests that “big sister” is “an endearment, as “June bluntly replies, “I don’t think so” (279).
However, as Mrs. Yang gradually changes for the better, so does June’s opinion of the “big sister” label. When Maybelle’s disappearance knocks Mrs. Yang out of her deep sadness, she starts to reengage with her daughters and apologizes to June for being “so sad.” This development allows June to feel hopeful again. Similarly, after June’s City Hall speech, Mrs. Yang calls June jèhjè once again, but this time, the term doesn’t provoke an ill-tempered response, and Mrs. Yang follows up by telling June that she is “happy” to have June as a daughter, as was Mr. Yang. Her expression of pride associates the term jèhjè with positive encouragement and love, and June now sees it as representing her maturity and dependability. June knows that whenever their lives become difficult, she will remain strong and fulfill the role of a true big sister.
