Juliet Takes a Breath

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Preface-Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Preface-Part 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1: “Welcome to the Bronx”

Preface Summary

The preface consists of a letter that Juliet wrote to Harlowe Brisbane, the author of Raging Flower: Empowering Your Pussy by Empowering Your Mind. In the letter, Juliet relays how Harlowe’s book has inspired her to be a more active feminist, even though Juliet questions the validity of Harlowe’s words because Harlowe is white from Portland while Juliet is Puerto Rican from the Bronx. Juliet tells Harlowe that her book “is a refuge from [her] neighborhood, from [her] contradictions, from [her] lack of desire to ever love a man” and that the book has made her want to come out as gay to her parents (3). At the end of the letter, Juliet writes that she wants to be Harlowe’s assistant for her next book.

Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary: “Wolves, Falcons, and the Bronx”

On the way back to the Bronx from Manhattan, Juliet sits on the train and observes her surroundings. A group of loud young men are also on the train, so Juliet pulls out her copy of Raging Flower: Empowering Your Pussy by Empowering Your Mind because reading “reminded [her] that [she] had a right to be mad” (11). When she finally reaches her stop, Juliet gets off the train, hands a dollar to the drug addict Robert, and gets a call from her mother. Her mom needs her to buy some extra groceries for dinner. At the store, the same loud young men from the train start to harass Juliet. Even though Juliet tells them she is “gay and not interested,” they continue to get closer to her and talk sexually to her (15). They finally leave Juliet alone when a woman pushing a stroller bumps into one of the young men and breaks up the group. Juliet realizes that this is the first time she has told anyone she didn’t know that she was gay. When Juliet returns home, she talks with her younger brother, Lil’ Melvin, who tells her not to worry about coming out to the family. Juliet works on a mixtape for her girlfriend Lainie and thinks about how difficult it will be to reveal that she is gay at her farewell dinner that night.

At her farewell dinner, Juliet tells her family about the incident in the market with the young men harassing her and how she told them she was gay. Her family commends her on using that as a way to get the men to back off without realizing that Juliet is trying to come out. Frustrated, Juliet more clearly reveals that she is a lesbian and is in love with Lainie. Her mother blames the book Raging Flower for making Juliet confused and tells her that she only has feelings for Lainie because she’s never dated a boy before. At the end of the chapter, Juliet says goodbye to her mother through her parents’ bedroom door because her mother refuses to come out to say goodbye face to face. Juliet’s aunt drives her to the airport for her summer internship in Portland, Oregon with the author of Raging Flower, Harlowe Brisbane.

Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary: “La Virgen Takes the Wheel”

Titi Wepa drives Juliet to JFK Airport with Lil’ Melvin in the backseat. Juliet reminisces about when she, Lil’ Melvin, and her parents drove to Florida to see Titi Penny, her mom’s only sister. Juliet’s mother would tell them stories of how she and Titi Penny would play with makeup and chase lizards in Puerto Rico while they were driving. Now, however, “this joyless, motherless ride to the airport was nothing like those trips to Florida” (32). While in the car, Juliet’s cousin Ava texts her about how she found out that Juliet is a lesbian and that she should call her. When they get to the airport, Titi Wepa tells Juliet that she will always love her, and she doesn’t care that she is a lesbian. Lil’ Melvin gives Juliet a paper bag with the word Confidential on it and tells her not to open it until she needs to.

Once alone in the airport, Juliet thinks about what her summer in Portland, Oregon will be like with Harlowe, the author of Raging Flower. She wonders if she will become a vegetarian and thinks that “Portland would be a place without bullshit” the way the Bronx is (36). Juliet thinks about her goodbye to her girlfriend Lainie, who has a summer internship in Washington DC. Lainie’s family doesn’t know that she is gay, so they kiss secretly in the back of Lainie’s mom’s car before parting ways for the summer. Juliet keeps trying to get in contact with Lainie while at the airport, but Lainie hasn’t responded to any texts or calls. However, “with or without hugs or sweet words from Lainie, [Juliet] was off into the world, off to see this Portland, this Harlowe” (39).

Preface-Part 1 Analysis

The opening chapters of Juliet Takes a Breath establish the characters and the motivations of the protagonist, Juliet Milagros Palante. From the Preface, the reader understands that Juliet is in a time of a great transition in her life. As she writes to Harlowe, the author of Raging Flower: Empowering Your Pussy by Empowering Your Mind, she reveals that she is a feminist lesbian who is trying to better understand herself, her place in the world, and her place within the community where she was raised. As a Bronx-born Puerto Rican, Juliet also looks at Harlowe’s whiteness with a critical lens, stating “if you can question the patriarchy, then I can question you” (2). This foreshadows that Juliet will struggle with the whiteness of others as she herself is a person of color.

Chapter 1 centers around Juliet’s love for her family and her deep need to come out to them as gay before she leaves for Portland for the summer. Although having an appreciation for the Bronx, Juliet is ready for something new in her life and believes that her internship in Portland will help her become a better feminist. The incident in the grocery store with the loud young men who harass her amplifies how unsafe the world is for women and why Juliet feels the need to be a stronger feminist. Even when Juliet tells the men that she is gay (the first time she has told that to strangers before), that only serves to encourage them to sexualize her more. When she tells her family about the incident, their reactions are a key moment that mirror the unfairness of the world: some laugh, some brush it off as normal, and nobody seems to take it seriously. Once again, Juliet becomes motivated to change the world because those reactions did not make her feel safe or valued.

When Juliet finally comes out to her family, they don’t take her seriously, which is hurtful to Juliet. As she is on an emotional journey to understand herself, her family gently rejects her, making her feel alone. Her mother, who she considers a feminist, doesn’t even come out of her bedroom to say goodbye to Juliet. This rejection sets the stage for the complicated relationship Juliet will continue to have with her mother throughout the novel and is the first hint at the mother/daughter relationship’s thematic significance.

The second chapter establishes Juliet’s desire for support from her family. Although she receives support from her little brother, her cousin, and her Titi Wepa, she still feels alone. Her girlfriend Lainie was distant when they said their goodbyes for the summer, and Juliet felt like “her heart felt far away from [hers], like they were beating in different time zones or different dimensions of love” (37). Juliet’s feelings of distance place her in a more isolated situation, making her more susceptible for change. Nobody is actively influencing her anymore. Even as her mother rejects her, Juliet is confident that she knows who she is as a feminist lesbian, and her mother cannot change that. Juliet’s acceptance of herself and those around her allow her to learn more about other communities and open herself up for the changes that will come while in Portland.

Juliet’s story follows a traditional coming-of-age arc with the added complexity of her identity as a gay person of color. In this first part, we see the first two points of a coming-of-age arc, wherein we meet the somewhat naïve and hopeful character as she begins her journey. For Juliet, she begins the story knowing that she wants to be a stronger feminist and naïvely believing that Harlowe can help her. Though she’s suspicious that Harlowe comes from a different realm of experience as a white woman, she forges blindly ahead. This attempt to adopt another person’s set of values and beliefs that the character will later discard in favor of developing her own is a coming-of-age trope and predicts Juliet’s disillusionment with Harlowe.

Then, Rivera introduces the challenge that the character will resolve at the end of the novel. The problem Juliet encounters as the second point in her character arc is that her mother doesn’t accept her for who she is. It’s only when Juliet begins to question the ingrained beliefs of her childlike self from Part 1 that she will begin to develop as a character.