54 pages • 1 hour read
Wendy MassA Mango-Shaped Space
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2003A 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
Understanding Oneself
The primary theme of A Mango-Shaped Space is the process of understanding oneself through personal exploration. At the beginning of the story, Mia has a limited understanding of herself as an individual, largely because she does not know why she sees her colors. Her synesthesia is part of her daily life, but it is also a mystery and a source of shame. Mia starts the process of understanding oneself when she meets Billy in the supermarket and realizes for the first time that her experiences may not be entirely unique.
A major turning point for Mia comes when she meets Jerry and learns that there is a name for her experiences. Jerry affirms for Mia that synesthesia is her “normal way of perceiving the world” (97). She is not making things up for attention, she does not have a brain tumor, and she is not a “freak”—an evocative term that punctures the theme of understanding oneself. Mia’s exploration of the synesthesia web forum and her interest in getting acupuncture are both expressions of her ongoing desire to better understand herself. Having found the label “synesthete,” she holds onto it and starts to build her identity around it.
For a while, synesthesia remains a useful vehicle for self-understanding in the novel. It is the only thing she really has in common with Adam, for instance, but she assumes it will be enough to allow them to forge a romantic connection. Ultimately, Wendy Mass presented Mia’s identity as multifaceted. While her synesthesia is an important part of her experience of the world, it is not the only way that she can understand herself. She is also an artist, a member of her family, and Jenna’s best friend. By the end of the story, Mia begins to find ways to integrate her synesthesia into a broader understanding of herself.
The theme of self-understanding contributes to the structure of the novel’s rising and falling action. When Mia has her final conversation with Roger during the falling action, she finds out that Roger does not care what color his name is to Mia’s because he is color-blind. His perception of Mia focuses on other aspects of her personality instead of her synesthesia. By the end of the novel, Mia has hence learned to value Roger’s opinion of her and has developed a more well-rounded self-understanding.
Grief and Healing
A Mango-Shaped Space is a book about recovering from loss. Several of the book’s primary characters are grieving for part or all of the narrative. They all have their own ways of dealing with their feelings, for better or for worse. The first chapter of the book takes place on the one-year anniversary of Mia’s grandfather’s death. Mia was close with her grandfather, but because she thinks that “part of his soul is right next to [her], stored safe and sound inside Mango” (29), she has never reconciled with losing her grandfather for good. Although this belief has helped her to cope, it presents a subtle conflict related to the theme of grief and healing.
This theme shapes the novel since Mango’s death provides its climax. When Mango dies suddenly, Mia feels the loss particularly acutely. Although it is not her first time grieving, it is an especially traumatic experience for her. Mia did not lose her colors when her grandfather died, but Mango’s death causes her synesthesia to disappear for several days. Although her grief is profound, letting go of Mango ultimately allows her to start healing from her grandfather’s death. The climax of Mango’s death hence initiates the novel’s falling action. When she looks at the painting that she did of her grandfather after Mango’s death, she finds that his expression looks more peaceful than it used to, suggesting that Mia’s own grieving process has reached an important milestone.
Several other people in Mia’s life are also grieving. Mia’s experiences are closest to Roger’s after the death of his dog. Roger truly understands what Mia is feeling, and he explains how his family has been through a gradual process of letting go rather than an abrupt shift. Although Mia’s siblings and parents are also grieving both Mango and Mia’s grandfather, she finds little comfort in discussing her experiences with any of them. For Mia, grief is deeply personal and largely private, prompting comparisons with the many aspects of her life that she keeps private—this aspect of her character forms the novel’s central conflicts.
A Mango-Shaped Space frames grief and healing as an aspect of coming-of-age. Jenna tries to relate to Mia by explaining that she understands the complexities of grief, but Mia is not ready to hear it. After the shock of Mango’s death gets less intense, the two friends are able to bond over what they have been through. When Jenna gives Mia her new friendship bracelet and the pair embrace at the bus stop, they are “both crying for a lot of reasons” (225) including their experiences of grief and healing. This ending signals the next stage of their growing up.
Being Considerate of Others
Mia struggles with her interpersonal relationships throughout A Mango-Shaped Space. For example, she tends to argue with her siblings, particularly her sister, Beth. She also gets into several fights with her best friend, Jenna. One of the major lessons that Mia learns as the book progresses is the importance of Being Considerate of Others. She learns that this is a two-way street: she needs to be aware of how she treats others, but they must also be aware of how they treat her. By the end of the book, things are not perfect, but Mia has a better understanding of the consideration that she deserves and of the consideration that she owes to other people. Alongside the process of Understanding Oneself, this narrative constitutes the coming-of-age in the novel.
The book begins with Mia’s experiences of being overlooked, mocked, and punished in her memories of her third grade math class. Her parents’ initial reaction when she tries to tell them about her colors at the beginning of eighth grade is similarly dismissive until they realize that she is not lying. Ms. Finn, the psychotherapist, assumes that Mia is just experiencing middle child syndrome, once again refusing to accept her real experiences. When Mia tries to confide in Jenna about what is happening, Jenna bursts into tears, guessing that “there are lots of things [Mia doesn’t] bother to tell [her]” (74). These reactions establish the central conflict in the novel: Her sense that she cannot talk about synesthesia with anyone because of their lack of consideration. Mia understands all of these experiences as unfair, and gradually either repairs or abandons all of the relationships involved in these interactions.
On the other hand, Mia herself is often inconsiderate of the feelings and needs of others. She shows a limited capacity to empathize with Jenna about her mother’s death, even claiming that Jenna could not possibly understand her feelings after Mango’s death. Because she is not particularly interested in school, she neglects her responsibilities in her history project with Roger, repeatedly missing meetings and deadlines. These instances form the secondary conflicts in the novel that create a more textured sense of resolution (or partial resolution, in the case of Jenna) at the end.
Mia does not always atone for her own behavior in the novel, but she does make progress. She and Jenna do ultimately stop fighting and reach a more stable understanding, and she bonds with Roger over their shared experiences of grief. Gradually, Mia comes to understand that she and those around her can reciprocate consideration. Mango’s death is the catalyst for a lot of this change. Mia believes, at least for a time, that if she had been more aware of Mango’s needs, he might not have died. Even though she does ultimately realize that Mango’s death is not her fault, Mass uses this experience to resolve the conflicts in the novel and present Mia becoming more aware of the needs and emotions of those around her.
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