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Visitation: Chapter 7
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
In the office where Leah works in administration, helping distribute lottery money to charities and nonprofits, most of the other employees are women. Her classmates who did better in school went on to become bankers and lawyers. She studied philosophy at university because she was afraid of dying. Leah’s coworker Adina gets annoyed whenever Leah makes too much noise. Leah is the only white woman in the office.
Leah’s interest in philosophy and her fear of death hint at a side of herself that she doesn’t seem to express around Michel or Pauline. The novel often gives insight into characters’ secret inner lives. Notably, the inner lives of some characters, like Shar, remain a mystery. By exploring Leah’s psychology, the novel suggests that other characters, like Shar, have complicated inner lives, too—but for one reason or another, other people have decided those inner lives aren’t worth paying attention to.
Themes
