56 pages • 1 hour read
Angela JohnsonHeaven
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1998A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Redefining the Concept of Family
Marley learns several difficult lessons about the nature of family and ultimately learns to expand her definition of the term, but arriving at this new wisdom takes a toll on her well-being and her relationships. When she discovers that her parents adopted her after her biological mother’s death and father’s abandonment, she experiences a complete shift in her identity and worldview.
Before this defining moment, Marley feels close to her parents and brother, and she frequently recalls memories from her childhood with warmth and a sense of belonging. As she describes “helping” Pops to wash his car when she was three years old, her memories of his tolerant nature illustrate the love that she and Pops have always shared. These memories from Marley’s early life indicate that she has a deeply committed family—parents and a brother who will always love and accept her. These initial contemplations also provide a solid foundation to indicate that Marley will eventually come to terms with the new information about her family history.
When Marley learns that she was adopted, her understanding of her family is shattered, leaving her feeling uncertain and insecure as she questions whether the people she loves are really her family at all. She is most profoundly shaken by her sudden (and misguided) conviction that she can no longer trust the people in whom she once confided. Expressing her emotions on this point, she states, “I feel bruised and motherless, even when I want to go to Momma lately and tell her it’s okay. I just wanted what I used to have. But I can’t. My legs won’t carry me to her. I miss her” (86-87). This quote illustrates the pain that Marley experiences after learning that Momma did not give birth to her; in her mind, this fact negates the central role that Momma played in raising her, and it takes Marley some time to reconsider her initial assumptions. In this moment, Marley’s mind and body are in conflict, and she feels unable to bridge the gap, knowing that Momma is not her biological mother.
As Marley begins learning more about her birth parents and the circumstances that led Momma and Pops to adopt her, Marley’s perception of family is further complicated, and she angrily calls Momma and Pops by their given names, expressing her frustration and sense of distance from them. However, she eventually starts to refer to both Momma and Christine as her mother—an indication that she is finally beginning to internalize the nuances of her situation and realize that both can be true; Christine will always be her birth mother, the one who carried her and birthed her, but Momma is the one who raised her as her own.
Marley’s family—the people who raised Marley—are instrumental in helping her to come to her own understanding of what family truly is. Butchy, in particular, reassures Marley throughout her journey. When he first learns that Marley is not his biological sibling, he states plainly that he has not changed the way he thinks about her. This affirmation is repeated throughout the text, and he later tells his sister, “Marley, you aren’t leaving with [Jack] or anything. I mean, you’re ours. Not his” (132). To Butchy, Marley will always be his sister and a member of his family. In this scene, Butchy claims Marley as his family despite her biological connection to Jack.
Just as Marley struggles to accept this new worldview, Marley’s adoptive parents also struggle with their love for the girl they raised as their own. They want to honor the decisions she makes after learning about her parents, even if doing so causes them a measure of emotional hardship. Momma illustrates this dynamic when she finds Christine’s missing letter and gives it back to Marley, saying, “I loved your mom, Marley” (122). This quote illustrates the fact that Momma wants to honor Marley’s connection to Christine, for she refers to Christine as “your mom” and hints at the deep connection she once had to the woman.
Through her various internal and external experiences, Marley learns that the concept of “family” does not have a fixed definition. Although her connection to Momma, Pops, and Butchy is more nuanced than she once believed it to be, they are nonetheless her family, and “only the titles have been renamed” (136). Marley’s relationship to her family members is ultimately more important than their titles, and she finally understands that her familial connections are strong not because of blood, but because they have chosen and will continue to choose each other.
The Damaging Impact of Secrets
As Marley struggles to process new information about her family, her relationships with Momma, Pops, and Butchy begin to deteriorate, and it is only by expanding her definition of family that she ultimately manages to solve this acute internal crisis. However, this transformation takes time as she works to rebuild her shaken trust in her adoptive parents and in “Uncle Jack,” her biological father. The narrative focuses on Marley’s attempts to come to terms with these secrets and gain a more complete sense of who she is and where she belongs in her family group.
When Marley first learns the details of her relationship with Momma and Pops, she loses her trust in them, wondering, “What if everything Lucy and Kevin have been telling me all these years has been one fat lie? I can’t trust anything they say now, can I?” (73). In this passage, she pointedly calls Momma and Pops by their given names, Lucy and Kevin, as an indication of the distance she now feels. She no longer believes that she can call them “Momma” and “Pops,” names that she used when she thought they were her biological parents. This quote illustrates the devastating effect of their decision to keep Marley’s adoption a secret for so long; because she has based her own identity upon her life with them, only for that vision of the world to be upended, she does not know whether she can trust anything they say to her.
Realizing the depths of her crisis, Pops tries to repair his relationship with Marley. Marley expresses her anger and hurt toward Pops and Momma, telling him, “Maybe the one big lie makes everything a lie” (97). In the bitterness of her tone, she expresses her sense of loss and disorientation in the wake of these secrets. Pops reminds Marley that although she may hold anger and resentment toward him and Momma for lying to her, they have always been there for her and will always be part of her life. By reassuring her on this point, he reminds Marley that he and Momma hold love for her that is just as deep and real as the love of birth parents would be.
Faced with these deep truths, Marley eventually begins to forgive her parents, and she fully reconciles with them by the end of the text, realizing that the ties of family are stronger than the secrets that were kept from her. A key turning point in Marley’s mindset comes when she begins recalling important moments from her childhood. In one example, the six-year-old Marley became stuck in the front yard during a snowstorm, and Momma rushed out to gather her up and take her inside, reassuring her that “she would always take care of [Marley]. That Pops would, too” (130). This moment stays with Marley and comes back to her as proof of her parents’ love despite their mistake in keeping secrets.
The Importance of Community Support
During Marley’s sudden distrust of her parents, she frequently relies upon the support of her friends to guide her. Learning the truth about her family damages her understanding of herself, a jarring and traumatic experience that she survives largely with the help of community support. As she leans on Shoogy and Bobby and confides her fears and frustrations to them, she realizes that she is not alone, and this thought helps her to process the truth about her own identity.
Marley’s friendships with Bobby and Shoogy are built on the idea that friendship can thrive even in the absence of full disclosure about the past. Marley does not need all the details about her friends’ backgrounds in order to support them. Both Shoogy and Bobby have issues in their pasts that they do not discuss, and Marley decides, “[I]t doesn’t matter ’cause the past doesn’t always make sense of the present” (26). Marley actively chooses to respect her friends’ privacy and love them for who they are now, and she will eventually come to apply this philosophy to her own family as well.
With this approach, Marley feels comfort and safety with both Shoogy and Bobby as she begins processing her own altered sense of identity. Shoogy is particularly understanding about letting Marley express her raw emotions. She asks Marley, “Don’t you need to howl? Howl at the people who screwed you over” (70). Marley feels visceral anger toward her parents and Uncle Jack in the wake of this revelation, and Shoogy instinctively understands her need to express her unbridled rage and resentment toward them. Because Shoogy struggles with her own family dynamics, she honors Marley’s urge to vent her anger and holds space for Marley’s emotions without judgment.
Shoogy also delivers an important reminder to Marley, warning her not to internalize Jack’s abandonment or believe that his decision has anything to do with who she is as a person. When Marley wonders aloud whether Jack might have stayed if she were beautiful, Shoogy asserts, “We’re all beautiful—so who knows why he did what he did?” (74). Shoogy’s simple, direct response reminds Marley of her inherent worth and emphasizes that Jack’s actions are a reflection only of him, not of Marley’s inherent value. Shoogy does not pretend to have all the answers, but she does support her friend unconditionally.
Additionally, Bobby’s position as a young father allows him to offer Marley a unique perspective and source of support. Whereas Shoogy invites Marley to dig into her anger and resentment, Bobby suggests a more measured approach, saying, “Just think about today” (58). He encourages Marley to focus on the present as a way to move through her difficult emotions, cautioning her not to say something to Momma or Pops that she will later regret. While he encourages her to focus on the present, he also tells her that this crisis and the hurt she feels will eventually fade. When that time comes, she may regret lashing out at her parents and further exacerbating the distance between them.
Yet despite these wise words of warning, Bobby also validates Marley’s anger toward her parents, as when he asks her why Momma and Pops left the baby box in her room rather than giving it to her directly. He comments, “Didn’t they want to be with you when you opened it? We’re talking heavy stuff” (88). Clearly, Bobby’s own identity as a father shapes his approach to supporting Marley, for despite his young age, he understands the weight of parenthood. Bobby sees both sides of Marley’s issue; he understands the weight of the secrets that Marley’s family kept from her, but he also realizes the value of family in the long term.
In a life-altering circumstance in which Marley feels stripped of her power, identity, and agency, both Bobby and Shoogy remind Marley that she is not alone. Their support shows her that she does have a modicum of power in how she chooses to proceed. They also offer an important aspect of community support when she anxiously awaits Jack’s arrival; rather than discussing the imminent meeting, they simply come and spend time with her. In this act, Shoogy and Bobby demonstrate that community support can sometimes be as simple as being present. They leave Marley to face her future independently, knowing that she will make her own decisions on how to navigate her family relationships, and they are committed to loving her no matter what path she chooses.
