46 pages • 1 hour read
Jessica Anya BlauMary Jane
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2021A 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
Choosing an Identity
When Mary Jane is first introduced, it becomes obvious that her life has been mapped out for her. At 14, she has very little basis for comparing the values her parents espouse and her own preferences. She has been raised Presbyterian, sings in the church choir, and only knows gospel songs or Broadway show tunes. These narrowly defined interests create the illusion of stability in an uncertain world. Mary Jane’s parents have created barriers between themselves and people who are less wealthy than they are. In the upscale community of Roland Park, diversity doesn’t exist. Mrs. Dillard’s superhuman effort to maintain absolute order extends to her control of Mary Jane, and experimentation of any kind is discouraged and actively suppressed.
Because Mary Jane’s universe is so homogenous that she doesn’t even realize that other possibilities exist. Her exposure to the Cones and their unusual houseguests rocks her world in a literal sense. As she tells her story, Mary Jane frequently contrasts her parents’ values and those of Sheba, Jimmy, and the Cones. It soon becomes obvious that Mary Jane prefers the chaotic, eccentric, loving energy in the Cone house over the superficial perfection and rigidly maintained emotional control of the Dillard home.
This comparison is critical for her future development. Without the contrast, Mary Jane would never know what she prefers. Her mother automatically assumes that Mary Jane’s life will be exactly as it was for preceding generations of Dillard women. For a girl of a different temperament, that assumption might prove correct. Mary Jane discovers a talent for cooking, using skills she learned from helping her mother. However, her culinary endeavors are infused with love and care rather than undertaken out of duty. Because her culinary creations are offered where they are most sorely needed, she receives enthusiastic praise for the meals she creates.
Similarly, Mary Jane knows that she can sing well, but Jimmy and Sheba are so supportive and encouraging of her voice that she begins exploring new forms of music to enjoy. In both cases, her ventures into unknown territory are encouraged instead of criticized. The novel espouses the concept that identity is an individual construct rather than a set of values worn like an overcoat passed on from generation to generation. The coat may not fit well, but most people never question the necessity of wearing it. Mary Jane’s magical summer at the Cone house allows her to discard an outworn garment and choose what suits her best instead.
Journeys of Self-Discovery
Although Mary Jane undergoes a change during her summer with the Cones and their guests, she isn’t the only character in the novel who undergoes a radical transformation. Several of the adult central characters experience epiphanies related to how they’ve been living their lives destructively. Unlike Mary Jane, none of them needs to discover an identity. Rather, they’ve all lost touch with the authentic identities lurking at the core of their beings.
In Jimmy’s case, his obvious concern is the need to stop using drugs before his addiction destroys his marriage or kills him. Modifying his behavior becomes less important to his cure than recognizing the reason why he needs the crutch of drugs in the first place. In a pivotal scene on the beach, he confesses that he never wanted wealth or fame. His desire to make music is all that matters, but this focus became lost in the noise of fan adulation. Heroin helps Jimmy cope with the public adoration that unnerves him.
Sheba’s problem is the exact opposite. She craves fan attention as a form of external validation to drown out the hypercritical voice of her mother. When she is forced into seclusion to help Jimmy, she finally realizes how much the adoration of the public matters to her. Admittedly, she also recognizes that external validation can only go so far without inner self-approval, but she has at least recognized the problem.
The polarity between Jimmy’s and Sheba’s needs triggers another epiphany in the group. Bonnie stands at the midpoint between the two celebrities. She craves the wealth, glamor, and attention that Sheba receives, but she also wants to be loved by a rock star like Jimmy. Bonnie submerged her craving for music and excitement when she married Richard. Her management of the Cone home is clear testimony to the fact that Bonnie’s interests lie elsewhere, but she failed to honor her own emotional needs or take action to fulfill them. Her desire for a divorce is the first step toward reclaiming her identity.
To a much lesser extent, Mrs. Dillard experiences an epiphany regarding her daughter. Jimmy’s song about Mary Jane causes her to regard the girl in a new light. For the first time, she sees Mary Jane as capable of making decisions and caring for herself and others. Mary Jane is no longer a child but someone who will grow into a responsible adult, even if she continues to listen to rock music.
Finally, the summer proves to be a journey of self-discovery for Mary Jane. She discovers her passion for cooking and realizes she enjoys feeding people, literally and figuratively. For the first time, she experiences what it’s like to be in a home where words of love are shared openly and spontaneity is allowed, and both make her feel happy and complete. She also realizes that her preferred approach to differences is to be open and accepting, which differs from her parents’ approach. Without these seminal moments of discovery, it would have been more difficult to take steps toward choosing an identity.
Found Family
Biological families in the novel are problematic, and the Dillards are the most obvious example. Neither of Mary Jane’s parents has ever told her that they love her. A silent pat on the head is the closest gesture of approval she has ever received. In contrast, the Cones express emotion openly and frequently. Mary Jane is shocked when little Izzy first says “I love you”: “The words suspended me in motion. I stood halfway to the door, wondering if I should say it back. I’d never said that before, not to anyone. And no one had ever said it to me” (89). Throughout the novel, Mary Jane hears this phrase many times and will also say it. In addition, the physical affection of all the characters for one another results in multiple group hugs. Despite her frigid upbringing, Mary Jane readily adapts to these open displays of affection and reciprocates whenever the opportunity presents itself. As a result, she comes to regard the Cones and their guests as the family she wishes she had. They become her found family.
A similar desire to construct supportive familial bonds drives Sheba and Jimmy because each has survived an abusive upbringing. Jimmy was raised by a mean-spirited family in West Virginia. His mother was hypercritical, which made him eager to please women. This partly explains his willingness to have sex with any woman who offers it. When he is caught in the act with Beanie, he is remorseful and breaks down in tears. However, Izzy and Mary Jane console him for his weakness rather than berating him, and all is forgiven.
Despite the fact that Sheba was a child star, her mother was also a difficult parent. She preferred Sheba’s two brothers and accused her daughter of being a “whore” when she found her daughter having sex with a boy: “When Sheba’s mother found out—she’d walked in on them in Sheba’s bedroom—she took a pair of scissors and cut up every article of cute clothing Sheba owned” (191). Sheba’s reaction to this slut-shaming was to pose nude for Playboy. She saw the positive public reaction to her photo spread as a validation of her sexuality in defiance of her mother’s attempts to degrade her. Jimmy and Sheba come to value the closeness they develop with the Cones and Mary Jane. In her letter to Mary Jane, Sheba says, “I think we did it right those couple of months” (296). By finding people who act the way families should but rarely do, they all did it right.
