Picture Us in the Light

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2018

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 5

Chapters 6-12

Chapters 13-20

Chapters 21-28

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

The Power of Familial Love

Kelly Loy Gilbert’s Picture Us in the Light articulates how familial love is often stronger than individual desire. The plot revolves around the Cheng family and the many sacrifices Danny’s parents have made to make his life one of opportunities. Danny’s parents left their daughter Joy behind in China to create a new life for her in America. Though it was painful to be separated from her, Danny’s parents did this so she could arrive in America in a stable environment. This decision ultimately cost them their daughter, as Joy and Danny’s grandfather’s sudden death led to her kidnapping, sale to an orphanage, and adoption by the Ballards. Though Danny’s parents were able to locate her after many years, they had to let her go because she was raised by the Ballards and recognizes them as her family—not the strangers who are her biological parents. When Danny’s father turned Joy away from his place of work, he did so not out of spite or lack of care, but because he cares too much. He didn’t want to confuse or endanger Joy, as both parents are charged with assault and without their green cards. This sacrifice is an enormous burden on Danny’s father, but selflessness is part of his nature as a father.

This selflessness is further proven by the way Danny’s parents try to shelter and protect him from the harsh reality of their past and present. Danny’s parents don’t want him to shoulder their burden, so they keep their undocumented status, warrant for arrest, and lost daughter a secret. Though these secrets feel like a betrayal to Danny, his parents only did so to give him a life free of pain and strife—a bright future with safety and security. Their final sacrifice is to abandon Danny so he can attend the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) without worrying about them. Danny mirrors his parents in many respects, having learned to be caring and committed to family. He selflessly puts aside his future at RISD to stay with his parents and support them through a difficult time—which is only put to a stop with their departure.

However, Danny struggles with delegating his love and loyalty between family and friends. When his lie about attending a new high school is exposed and he and Regina are called into the principal’s office, Danny is more concerned about Regina’s feelings than his parents’ fear of the authorities. In part, this is because Danny harbors resentment toward them for keeping secrets. But he also understands that his parents’ love is unconditional, while his relationships with his friends have limitations (especially with Harry and Regina going to different colleges). Desperate not to lose Regina as a friend and worried for her mental health, Danny chooses her over his parents in this moment. Ultimately, he learns to prioritize familial love over individual desire and hurt (grounded in assumptions) after the family’s car accident demonstrates how fragile life is. Gilbert’s novel is a celebration of the power of familial love, and the lengths to which parents will go to make their child’s life better than theirs.

Life Is Difficult but Worthwhile

Throughout her novel, Gilbert acknowledges that life is difficult—but ultimately advocates for life as worthy of the suffering that often defines it. Danny’s parents endure many hardships: They lost their daughter to a system they can’t fix, and this injustice weighs on their hearts. They worry about Danny’s wellbeing, often struggle financially, and are without family and steady friends in America. They face the constant threat of arrest, imprisonment, and deportation, and struggle with mental health issues; Danny’s father battles long bouts of depression and his mother is prone to panic attacks. But despite so many conflicts without resolutions, Danny’s parents are resilient and keep living for the future. Danny becomes their symbol of hope, and all their hardship is worth the pain if it means he prospers. For Danny’s parents, life is difficult but worth the challenge.

Another example of this theme is seen in the relationship between Sandra’s death by suicide and the friends she leaves behind. Despite expressing grief and frustration in life, Sandra’s death takes everyone by surprise. Her death reminds her peers that life is fragile and can change at any moment. Danny and his friends start actively appreciating each other and their lives more—but are also constantly worried that a missed call or an unanswered text means the worst has happened. He and Regina in particular mourn Sandra, and struggle with guilt over her depression and death. Ultimately, both Danny and Regina realize that suicide is never the answer to dark times. Danny believes there is always a way out of darkness, even if the process depletes you. Regina focuses on all the things she wants to live for—her family, her friends, her future studying journalism at Northwestern. Gilbert acknowledges that life can feel unbearable at times—but encourages her young readers to remember that there is always the possibility of light at the end of any dark tunnel.

One of the things that makes life worthwhile is other people. Danny is extroverted in that he needs other people around to feel energized and fulfilled, though it is his introverted side that inspires his art. He is constantly concerned that his friends don’t like him as much as he likes them, and he always notices others’ shifts in mood and tone. Danny has a strong sense of empathy, but it is unrealistic to expect others to exhibit the same level. He learns he can’t control how others act and feel about him but maintains appreciation for the ways in which his family and friends do support him. He realizes how lucky he is to have parents who allow him to nurture his passions and chase his dreams; he appreciates his friends’ faith in each other. Despite how difficult life becomes, Danny navigates external and internal conflicts by holding on to his love for people, his people. In loving others, he maintains a love for the world, as complex and cruel as it can be.

Coming of Age as a Child of Immigrants

A major theme in the novel is the process of coming of age. As the protagonist, Danny’s adolescence is front and center. He is on the cusp of young adulthood, being in his final year of high school. Senior year is a major transition for all students; regardless of their post-high school plans, the only certainty is that life will change soon. Danny, Harry, and Regina all struggle to picture what their life will be like outside of the comforts of their school community. They’ve known each other for many years but understand that college, separation, is in their future; they worry about who they will be outside of their friend group.

There are several important moments in the novel that make it a coming-of-age story. When Danny learns that his parents no longer have their green cards and are technically living and working in the country without paperwork, he realizes his responsibility to step up for his family. He is safe from imprisonment and deportation because he was born in the United States; this status gives him privileges that his parents no longer have. With more privileges than his more experienced parents, Danny becomes a leader in his household. As Danny’s parents can no longer afford the life they once had, it is up to him to figure out a way forward. This is a major coming-of-age moment because it reveals that our parents will not always be the ones in power. The reason for Danny’s shift in power is unjust, but it does inspire him to get more serious about his goals and find ways to help his parents, not just himself. This shows growth and maturity.

Another coming-of-age moment is when Danny battles his internal conflict and finds a way back to his art in a more honest way. He has long thought of his art as his way of making sense of the world, but he realizes that his sketches of Mr. X (the racist white man who harassed his child self) and Sandra are figments of anxiety, not reflections of reality. Danny decides to be more honest with himself so he can humanize the threats he reduced to cartoons (to make them more manageable). In addressing his art in a realistic way, he finally confronts his deepest fears and acknowledges the power of naming these fears. This release not only makes Danny’s art better, but it also makes him mature. He has long idealized the world around him, particularly the people in his life, believing that the world and its people would always be good to him for being good. Gilbert uses Danny’s coming-of-age story to encourage her young readers to embrace the reality of the world in all its joys and challenges.

Regina also goes through her own coming-of-age story. She starts her senior year avoiding her church friends, being distant from her school friends, and immersing herself in the school newspaper. Regina faces the same pressure of going away for college that other students her age do, but in her case, this stress is exacerbated by her best friend Sandra’s death by suicide the previous year. As Regina grows, she grows farther away from Sandra, who will forever remain the same age in her mind. Her secret spread honoring Sandra is her way of coping with her guilt, celebrating her friend, and reminding the school of the reality of depression in teenagers. Though this spread gets her parents called in, it ultimately motivates Regina to get in touch with her feelings regarding Sandra’s death. She starts seeing the school psychologist and helps her parents understand how important studying journalism at Northwestern is to her. Regina’s coming-of-age story comprises embracing the pain of her past to make her way toward a brighter future. In having her young characters strike a balance between joy and pain, Gilbert again encourages her young readers to think of the world as full of possibility.