Previous
Guest: (W1)
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in NW, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Class Identity and Social Mobility
Geography and Human Connection
Sex and Relationships
Altruism
Summary
Analysis
Felix takes the tube and thinks of his half-brother, Devon, who robbed a jewelry store when he was 19 and is still in prison now at age 23. A pregnant woman interrupts him on the tube to ask if his “friend” can move his feet so she can sit. Felix doesn’t actually know the “friend,” but he asks the man across from him to move his feet. The man gets mad, and finally Felix just gets up and gives the woman his seat.
Felix is trying to live life differently from his imprisoned brother, but in spite of that, people still see him as an “other.” The pregnant woman, for example, assumes that Felix must know the other train passenger who has his feet up, implying that Felix’s and the man’s similarly downtrodden appearances makes them peers. In fact, that man becomes hostile with Felix, showing how Felix is different from the man. But the pregnant woman can’t see through her bias to register this.
Themes
Felix gets out of the tube and starts walking along Albert Road. All of a sudden, he feels someone jam two fingers into his back and ask for his money and phone. Two people grab him, one a man about Felix’s age and the other much younger. Felix says he won’t give them anything, but he’s prepared to give them his phone and the cash in his pocket, and he eventually does so. The younger one demands Felix’s zirconia earrings, which were a present from Grace, but Felix refuses.
The mention of Albert Road signals that the end of Felix’s life is coming soon. At first, Felix seems to be lucky that he wasn’t carrying around all the cash he had earlier when he was buying a car off Tom. But as the rest of this chapter shows, Felix is far from lucky. Zirconia looks like diamonds but is much less valuable. The earrings seem to have more sentimental value than material value, and yet, they cause a misunderstanding that leads to Felix’s death.
Themes
Felix turns toward the street but suddenly feels a pain in his side. He thinks it’s a punch at first, but the pain feels slicing. He feels blood in his throat and can’t speak. He sees a young girl in a yellow summer dress running to catch the 98 bus.
Felix’s inability to speak shows how this stabbing has robbed him of his agency and how after his death, he will become just a story in the news that other people talk about.
Themes
