83 pages • 2 hours read
Isabel QuinteroGabi, a Girl in Pieces
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
Happiness Comes from Being Comfortable with Yourself
Various aspects of identity are explored throughout the story. Gabi is light skinned, which makes her frequently feel she needs to defend her Mexican identity when people say racist things around her. She is raised in a home where her mother looks down upon Americanized behavior. Gabi struggles with wanting to attend college across the state and feeling guilty over leaving her family. Coming to terms with her decision to attend college—a decision she makes because she’s excited to attend, not because she wants to identify more as a White person—is a significant point in Gabi’s growth into adulthood. Gabi is not abandoning her family and culture, but instead sees college as what comes next in life after the rite of passage that is completing high school. When Gabi tells her mother “that I was moving out and that I would love her support, but either way I had to go” (279), she’s confirming her intention to follow her own path, even if it’s temporarily uncomfortable.
In order to be fully comfortable with herself, Gabi must accept all the pieces of who she is as a unique individual. A significant component of Gabi’s development as a writer is her connection with fellow Latina writers. Gabi sees herself in writers like Michele Serros and Sandra Cisneros, female poets whose works show Gabi that Spanish and English can be brought together in writing, that poetry does not need to conform to boundaries of language. On the novel’s cover and title page, the title reads, Gabi, A Gordita/A Fatgirl/A Girl in Pieces, the strikeouts signifying the various stages Gabi goes through as she gets closer to embracing her identity. She thinks of herself as a fat girl in Spanish first, then uses English—a demonstration of the kind of Americanization her mother fears—before coming to terms with being someone composed of various pieces. At times, those pieces may seem broken, such as when Gabi’s writing regresses after her father’s death, but Gabi ultimately comes to understand that those pieces are what make her a unique individual. Even though some pieces might be flawed, Gabi learns to take Sebastian’s advice (278) to love and accept herself and others with those faults.
Although shame frequently creates hurdles for characters in reaching their happiness, the characters most comfortable with themselves are happy in the end, demonstrating the truth of Tia Bertha’s assertion that “living a lie is painful and doesn’t do anyone any good” (282). Sebastian has been openly gay for the majority of the plot, and he instills confidence in Gabi as she learns to accept herself and those around her unconditionally. Tia Bertha is happier at the end of the story when she finally embraces her own sexuality, cutting her hair short, wearing pants and makeup, and openly dating rather than trying to hide her relationships. Gabi ends her senior year confident in who she is and excited about where she is going.
People Experience Sex Differently
Gabi realizes that “moms are so worried about sex” because “it’s everywhere” in the life of a teenager (52). Although sex is a constant topic throughout the story, no two characters experience sexual discovery and coming of age in the same way. The subject is deeply personal and brings characters to think of their own experiences, such as Gabi’s mother fearing that her daughter will repeat her own mistake and become pregnant unexpectedly, or when Gabi immediately thinks of her own friendship with Cindy when Cindy reveals her pregnancy. There is shame surrounding the topic of sex in this story’s community, making it difficult for characters to be fully transparent and honest with one another. When a secret is revealed, such as Cindy’s secret that she has had sex, it comes as a shock because talking about it is avoided until absolutely necessary.
In addition to shame, pregnancy is a recurring consequence of sex in the novel. Cindy’s first sexual experience results in pregnancy that marginalizes her from her peers in her senior year of high school; Gabi’s mother is sad when she shares the news that she is pregnant again, even though she’s married; Georgina decides to have an abortion rather than go through with her pregnancy. Pregnancy in this story is not a happy, joyful experience shared with and supported by family. Instead, pregnancy is a shameful consequence of sex, a burden for women to carry.
Cindy’s experience draws attention to unreported rape. Cindy is ashamed to tell adults or authorities the circumstances of her experience with German. German most likely drops the charges against Gabi for having assaulted him because he knows that going through with pressing such charges opens the way for adults to ask more questions. Cindy, Gabi, and Sebastian all understand that German raping Cindy is wrong. Gabi’s rage boils over when she sees German with his arm around another girl at school after Cindy has only recently had his baby. Even though the experience is Cindy’s, Gabi feels personally infuriated because she cares so deeply for Cindy.
Gabi also draws attention to potential dangers for being openly gay together in her society when she worries for Sebastian’s safety on a date: “What if they hold hands and people harass them? What if they get beat up? Why do I have to worry about these things just because they’re two boys?” (48). While Gabi’s mother is worried about the consequences of sex, Gabi learns that simply dating has the potential to be emotionally and physically traumatizing, as experienced by Cindy and Sebastian.
Not all sexual experiences in the story are negative, though. Gabi’s own sexual coming of age is one of awkward yet respectful discovery between two consenting individuals. It’s important to note that Gabi’s first sexual experience also occurs when she’s already 18, whereas Cindy and Sebastian’s ages are left unspecified, leaving readers to know only that they’re around Gabi’s age since they’re all graduating together in the same year. Gabi’s story is one of growing into maturity and accepting herself, and her sexual experience with Martin serves as a critical part of that coming of age because it’s on her own terms.
Addiction Destroys Individuals and Families
Although Gabi’s father appears rarely in the novel, his actions and absence leave a wake of confusion and pain for the rest of the family. Gabi is ashamed of her father’s addiction, hesitating to even introduce him as her father in her own diary. His first appearance is vague—Gabi doesn’t explain why she prefers not to interact with her father on the street. It’s not until her September 10 entry, over one month into her diary, that Gabi directly mentions her father’s addiction and describes him as someone “crazy and desperate and never mentally here” (29). Gabi is ashamed of her father’s addiction. Drugs have taken a caring, funny, good person and turned him into someone unrecognizable to his own daughter, and Gabi no longer remembers a time when he wasn’t an addict (61).
Gabi struggles with feelings of responsibility for her father’s actions. Requests for money are repeated in the infrequent communication between father and daughter, with Gabi’s father regularly asking for money for drugs. His money troubles reach a low point for the family when Gabi realizes that he’s offered their mother in exchange for his drug debt. Gabi recognizes that it’s because of addiction that her father now acts like a stranger, but she also recognizes that she’ll never fully have him back (40). When Gabi discovers her father’s death by overdose in the garage, she immediately blames herself, wondering if the overdose could have been prevented had she come into the garage earlier in the day. Sebastian points out that Gabi has no personal agency over her father, though, when he tells her, “There’s nothing you could have done to change that” (278). Just as Sebastian cannot control how or whether his parents accept him for being gay, Gabi cannot control her own father’s actions. Individuals may be impacted by the actions of their family members, but they are not to blame for what another person decides to do with their life.
Even though Gabi eventually accepts that she’s not to blame for her father’s addiction, she acknowledges that “having a father who is addicted to meth is exhausting. It’s like you have to walk on eggshells all the time. Have to be worried all the time. Have to be scared all the time” (37). This constant worry combined with the shame of addiction makes it difficult for family members to support Gabi’s father. Families and communities eventually rally around and support Sebastian and Cindy, whereas Gabi’s father remains marginalized in his struggles. Sebastian is kicked out of his home when he tells his parents that he’s gay, but he finds shelter quickly at Gabi’s and then with his aunt, avoiding homelessness and a complete lack of support. Cindy’s mother is livid when Cindy confesses that she’s pregnant, but Cindy is supported through her pregnancy and eventually repairs the relationship with her mother. Gabi’s father, however, is pushed further to the margins of society for his addiction, eventually disappearing from the story and leaving a sense of relief that his struggles will no longer loom over the protagonist.
