49 pages • 1 hour read
Jennifer MathieuMoxie
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 8-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary
Vivian is upset that her mom continues to see John, whom she is sure “was probably president of the Young Conservatives and sat at the jock table” (86). Lucy and Vivian are becoming friends. Vivian talks to Seth and realizes he has a Runaways sticker on his binder. Claudia tells Vivian about another lewd T-shirt the football captain, Jason Garza, is wearing. Then the principal and assistant principal begin random dress code checks, making girls stand up in the middle of class, embarrassing them about their attire, and forcing them to wear gym clothes with East Rockport High logos.
Emma Johnson joins their English class. Vivian thinks of her as polished and perfect, someone who knows how to handle boys though she is also nice. At lunch, Vivian’s friend Sara is upset over being humiliated about her clothing. Lucy says the dress code checks are public shaming and put girls, rather than boys, in charge of boys’ behavior. Claudia doesn’t like the idea of speaking out or complaining, and Vivian is upset by the whole exchange.
Chapter 9 Summary
The dress code checks continue, and Principal Wilson says they are to emphasize modesty and create a learning environment. A couple of girls wonder why he doesn’t say anything to the football players wearing gross shirts. When one girl, Marisela, gets called out, she makes a joke as if she’s being hauled off to prison. Vivian finds that “Marisela’s act of insurrection—however tiny—sets something off inside of me” (101). Lucy says the checks treat girls like Hester Prynne, the woman shamed for adultery in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter. Lucy decorates her hands with hearts and stars and says she wishes whoever created Moxie would do something more.
At dinner with her grandparents, Vivian complains about the dress code and wonders why the boys aren’t expected to control themselves. Vivian feels a fire inside her starting to roar. She listens to Bikini Kill and makes another zine. The zine calls out dress code checks as sexist, arbitrary, shaming girls and making them responsible for boys’ behavior. The zine calls for girls to wear their bathrobes to school on Tuesday.
Chapter 10 Summary
Frank, at the copy shop, says this Moxie is even better than the first. As she bikes home, Vivian spots her mom in John’s car, kissing him. For the first time, Vivian lies to her mom about where she was.
While distributing the next Moxie zine before school, Vivian runs into Seth Acosta. He admires what she’s doing and promises to keep her secret. Lucy is excited about the new zine, and Vivian realizes she feels very comfortable with Lucy. Her friends don’t want to get into trouble by wearing their bathrobes, and Claudia again is cautious about drawing attention to the school’s sexist culture. Vivian puts her bathrobe in her backpack and listens to the song “Rebel Girl.”
Chapter 11 Summary
Vivian is nervous as she approaches school in her bathrobe but sees a tight circle of sophomore girls wearing them. Lucy is wearing a fuzzy pink bathrobe and matching slippers. Kiera is wearing a bathrobe. Claudia isn’t, but Sara is. The teacher is annoyed by the bathrobes and tells one girl, Kate, who is known for talking back to teachers, to take hers off. Kate is wearing a bright red bikini top underneath. Kate says she’s wearing the bathrobe “so as not to distract any of our precious male students” with her attire (128).
Lucy is excited and wants to know how’s behind Moxie, but Vivian doesn’t say. In English class, Emma Johnson is wearing an East Rockport hoodie. Mitchell Wilson tries to hit on her. Seth compliments Vivian on her bathrobe. They discuss Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery,” and Vivian speaks up to argue that the message is that tradition isn’t always good. Vivian walks home with Claudia and feels a bit awkward, but later, a text from Lucy saying “Moxie girls fight back! Moxie girls kick ass and take names!” makes her laugh (134).
Chapter 12 Summary
The dress code checks stop, and Vivian wonders if the bathrobe stunt had something to do with it. At the pep rally, they note that the football team has expensive mascot gear while the equipment in their chemistry lab is ancient. Seth catches Vivian in the hallway and invites her to hang out with him instead of going to the football game. Vivian asks her mom for permission to go out, and Lisa calls Vivian her “obedient, well-behaved daughter” (142).
Vivian is nervous and excited. She educates Seth about cruising the Sonic and Dairy Queen, which is what the kids do for entertainment. Seth talks about his life in Austin and his parents and takes Vivian to “cruise” the funeral home. Seth says he played football in Austin, and not all football players are arrogant, sexist jocks who harass women. Vivian enjoys herself and feels comfortable. She hopes he will kiss her at the end of the night, but he doesn’t.
Chapter 13 Summary
Vivian is upset that her mom’s relationship with John has progressed to his spending the night and evades her mother’s attempts to have a conversation with her about it. Vivian feels better once she texts Lucy, who has a surprise: she’s holding a Moxie bake sale to benefit the girls’ soccer team. Lucy registered Moxie as a club and signed her name on a form to get permission.
Vivian realizes, “Moxie doesn’t belong to me anymore. It belongs to every girl at East Rockport High who wants to be part of it” (161). Lots of girls support the sale, and Vivian bakes her grandmother’s magic squares. Meemaw is thrilled that Vivian is baking and calls it “ladylike” (163). Her mom supports the fundraiser, but Vivian feels like the old times between them are gone.
During the bake sale, Kiera and her friend Amaya buy treats, then ask who is behind Moxie. They want to know if the club is open to new members or if it’s just for white girls. Lucy says any girl can organize a Moxie event. Lucy points out to Vivian how segregated the cafeteria is by language and race while excluding kids who don’t fit in any particular box. Vivian recalls how her mom once said the Riot Grrrls could have been more welcoming to girls of color.
Chapters 8-13 Analysis
These chapters introduce a new angle on Moxie and the theme of Activism, Tradition, and Change, introducing the question of who controls women’s bodies and behaviors. With the justification that he’s enforcing a learning environment, Principal Wilson holds the sexist stance that girls’ bodies will be distracting to boys and so therefore should be covered in the name of modesty. The girls themselves recognize a double standard in that the boys aren’t policed for lewd slogans on their T-shirts, but girls are called out, publicly shamed in class, and humiliated by being forced to wear unattractive school gear for violating the arbitrary terms of an unclear dress code.
Lisa and Lucy articulate the feminist viewpoint: forcing girls to modify their clothing because of a sexual response it might elicit in boys not only controls women’s bodies, taking away their agency, but also holds girls responsible for boys’ behavior; at the same time, boys are not held to any standards of dress or behavior. Grandpa voices the ingrained cultural notion behind this, that “boys will be boys” and allowances have to be made for their sexual impulses by policing girls’ sexuality. Lisa objects, pointing out that a fair standard would hold all teenagers accountable for their own behaviors.
With both Lucy and her mother giving her a new perspective, Vivian sees that custom and familiarity aren’t legitimate justifications for injustice and can perpetuate a tradition that is not necessarily correct or fair. This idea is underlined by the short story they discuss in class, Shirley Jackson’s classic “The Lottery,” which describes a small town’s ritual stoning that is conducted every year as a matter of course.
A male ally, Frank at the copy shop supports the Moxie cause, and Seth also emerges as an ally in praising Moxie and keeping Vivian’s authorship secret. In their date, however, Seth voices the “not all men” response, using the football players as an example. Seth himself is not a harasser, but the “not all men” excuse is often used to temper or distract claims of injustice or inequality. Claudia, with her fear of getting in trouble, represents the faction of women who avoid claims of feminism and activism in general because they think speaking up is wrong, will cause distress, or will gain them unwelcome attention. The cultural expectation that women should be pleasant, quiet, and conciliatory works to silence feminist claims and disrupt calls for equity by diverting attention to the manner in which the claims are made instead of addressing incidents of real injustice.
Lucy, who has a Mexican parent, and Kiera and Amaya, who are Black, introduce a consideration that previous feminist movements handled poorly: integrating the needs of women of color into activism that had primarily benefited white women. Intersectional feminism considers the roles racial discrimination, socioeconomic disparities, and other inequalities play in gender discrimination. By prioritizing communal movements, shared leadership, and inclusivity, as well as by engaging male and intergenerational allies, Moxie reflects modern, fourth-wave feminism and represents social justice as an organic, communal movement that is responsive to its specific cultural setting.
The segregation of the East Rockport High cafeteria also reflects a second theme the novel addresses, that of Cliques, Outsiders, and the Fear of Standing Out. The changing quality of Vivian’s friendships reflects on what it takes to forge connections between or across differences. Some of her friends emerge as Moxie girls, but a rift grows between Vivian and Claudia, perhaps due both to Moxie and to newcomers such as Lucy. Vivian bonds with Lucy and with Seth because they share a like-mindedness, but the new relationships pull against the old patterns, causing discomfort.
This discomfort is most amplified in Vivian’s chief and longest relationship, that with her mother, which has been changed by the introduction of John. Her mother’s interest in this potential new partner changes the dynamic between them. Vivian resents the loss of attention, but she’s also unsettled because John doesn’t represent the kind of man she would expect her mother to like. The shifting ground of her primary relationships causes Vivian to question what she has always known and accepted, and that growth adds to her Maturity, Agency, and Independence.
Further spurring changes is her attraction to Seth. This relationship is a significant change for Vivian because she’s never been involved with a boy; her romantic status is another element she hopes to change. Emma Johnson provides a contrast and foil to Vivian’s emerging sense of self. Emma seems polished and mature: well-groomed, organized, studious, self-possessed, a leader, and a girl who knows how to handle male attention—the “cheerleader” type. Vivian is still classifying people according to the patterns she’s always known.
