44 pages • 1 hour read
Kai HarrisWhat the Fireflies Knew
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A 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
Fireflies
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses racism.
Fireflies are a symbol for emotional connection and memory. Kai Harris introduces the fireflies in relation to knowledge in the title as a symbol for what KB must learn: namely, the importance of finding good even in difficult events and staying present so that she can make enough good memories to heal from trauma. The fireflies first appear in the novel when Granddaddy teaches KB to slow down and be still if she wishes to catch the fireflies. This encounter cements the relationship between the two. KB internalizes this message as an extension of her father’s advice to slow down, making the encounter with the fireflies a specific symbol for the connection between KB and male parental figures.
The fireflies show that KB’s connection with nature is part of her journey toward enriched emotional connections and memories. Through quiet contemplation of nature, KB gains a mindfulness that helps her to deal with difficult experiences such as racism, sexual assault, and the disruption of her family life. Harris has KB return to the fireflies at the end of the novel. When KB reflects on what happened during this summer at her grandfather’s house, she notes that, “[a]t the beginning of the summer, [she] ain’t even know how to catch a firefly” but now she knows how to “catch a firefly, and [she] can hold on, too” (270). These are new skills that reflect her coming of age.
Granddaddy’s Money and Great-Great Granddaddy’s Pennies
Money as a motif represents freedom in the novel and hence also signals inequality. When Granddaddy wants to teach KB what racism is, he tells her a story about working hard as a boy to save up for money for a trip to the store and a white man stealing it. Losing the money teaches Granddaddy about the restrictions on his freedoms as a Black man in America and how free white people are to exploit him.
Granddaddy carefully explains to KB that the inequality he and other Black Americans experienced then was “not just cause of segregation. Black folks ain’t have the same opportunities as white folks, to do stuff like go to school or get a good job. Back then, a lot of Black folks still worked for the white folks” (32). The intersection of racism and socioeconomic inequality meant that his grandfather could work all year and still only make seven pennies after the white person who owned the land took his cut. KB concludes that having money will give her family more options, specifically the chance to be together again.
Granddaddy liberally spends his money to pay for dresses, eating out, books, and a down payment on a house for his daughter and granddaughter. The down payment in particular highlights the freedom that comes when Black people have generational wealth to pass down.
Fuzz
Harris uses Fuzz the caterpillar as a symbol for KB’s autonomy and coming of age. KB captures Fuzz and places him in a jar. The caterpillar remains in this jar for much of the narrative. KB initially thinks of the caterpillar as a part of nature that is there for the taking, but by the end of the novel, she comes to see her removal of the caterpillar from nature as an unfair imposition on its freedom. Like her, Fuzz has to contend with challenges and oppression that are not of his own making. To survive and to become himself fully, Fuzz will have to consume himself and make the best of a bad situation, which is exactly what KB has done during the economic and emotional struggles of the past six months of her life. When KB frees Fuzz, she does so to give him greater freedom to become what he wants to be under his own terms. Giving him his freedom is a marker of her coming of age but also of her hope that she can overcome the constraints imposed on her by family and society at large.
Charlotte’s Chalk Drawing and Bobby’s Rocks
The chalk drawing and the rocks are both symbols of the perils and pleasures of friendship across race and class lines. When Charlotte draws a picture of KB as a gesture of friendship, she relies on racist conventions of representing Black people visually. Charlotte sees the ugly picture as a gift, while KB sees it as an insult. The drawing gives her insight into how Charlotte sees her.
Bobby’s rocks are symbols of his efforts to bond with KB across the lines of race, gender, and class. He gives KB three of his most beautiful rocks after his mother peremptorily interrupts the children’s play; his mother doesn’t believe her children should be playing with KB. Despite the gift of the rocks to KB, Bobby fails to defend KB when his mother accuses her of stealing Charlotte’s bike. The aborted friendship between Bobby and KB does not overcome structural inequality.
