45 pages • 1 hour read
Patti SmithJust Kids
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Icons and Devotional Figures
Throughout her life, Smith maintains a work area surrounded by "manuscript pages, musty classics, broken toys, and talismans" (45), such as pictures of her icons. The French poet Arthur Rimbaud becomes one of Smith's first icons, in whom she finds a "compatriot, kin, and even secret love" (23). She often composes odes to or work inspired by these heroes, including Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and Joan of Arc. Both Mapplethorpe and Smith seem to assign religious status to their icons and objects. Mapplethorpe imbues material objects with sacred meaning, like the necklace he buys for Smith, which they share, "depending on who need[s] it the most" (51), or the Joan of Arc gifts he gives her, based on their shared mythology of Joan's significance. When Smith releases her debut album, Horses, she has songs dedicated to Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, her sister, and Wilhelm Reich.
Literature
Though she finds her greatest success as a musician, literature nurtures Smith throughout her life and informs her artistic practice. As a young girl, Smith becomes "completely smitten by the book" (6) and "cherishe[s] the idea" (11) that one day she will write a book. Arriving in New York and securing a job at Brentano's bookstore saves Smith from either starving or having to return home with shaken confidence. Smith also has a talent for finding books worth a good deal of money for low prices, like the "twenty-six volume set of the complete Henry James for next to nothing" (128) that she sells for over $100. Both Smith and Mapplethorpe read extensively and allow their readings to influence their artwork. While Smith writes and reads poetry, she doesn't feel quite at home in the New York poetry world. Instead, she mixes her love of literature with her love of rock and roll to create a genre of performance she calls "Rock and Rimbaud" (233).
The Chelsea Hotel
As an entity, New York's famed Chelsea Hotel has served as an "energetic, desperate haven" (91) to many artists and bohemians since the 1950s. Notable residents of the hotel range from the poet Dylan Thomas to pop singer Madonna. Smith follows her intuition to end up there with Mapplethorpe, where "everybody is somebody, if nobody in the outside world" (91). There, Smith hopes to barter artwork with the hotel manager in exchange for rent, as she's heard some artists do. Even at night, Smith feels "the strength of community in the sleeping hotel" (97). While living at the Chelsea, Smith and Mapplethorpe meet many people who prove influential and instrumental to their respective artistic careers.
