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Part One
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Good Morning, Midnight, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Sadness and Vulnerability
Identity and Belonging
Memory, Loss, and Change
Money and Manipulation
Summary
Analysis
When the following afternoon rolls around, Sasha finds herself preparing to meet Delmar. Together, they go to visit a painter named Serge, but on their way, Sasha has a flashback to a period she spent living in a hotel in Paris and sleeping for the vast majority of the time. She hardly ate anything during this time, going for three weeks without having anything more than a coffee and a croissant in the mornings. She fantasized about killing herself, but she kept putting it off—she had already paid for her room through the month, so she figured she might as well stick around.
Again, Sasha loses herself in memories of her tumultuous past. Her flashback helps readers make sense of her deep sense of sadness; in fact, her current unhappiness seems relatively insignificant compared to the period she rehashes in this moment. Readers learn that she went through a suicidal period during which she barely ate anything.
Themes
When Sasha wasn’t sleeping, she would usually walk around Paris. One day, a man came up to her and asked if she’d like to have a drink. While they sipped absinthe, he read her a letter he’d received from a lover. The letter was full of flattering compliments, but it ended with a request for the man to send money so the lover could buy new shoes. The man suspected that the woman just needed to give money, but he also hated the idea of her having to make do with insufficient shoes. Sasha helped him analyze the letter, and as they did this, they kept drinking. Finally, he invited her to the place he was staying.
The man in this story is unsure whether or not his lover’s interest in him is genuine or if she just wants some money. His suspicion resembles the dilemma Sasha faced in her interactions with René, since she couldn’t determine if René’s intention was to con her or to connect with her. In this way, the novel is full of strange, ambiguous relationships in which each partner’s motivations remain unclear.
Themes
As soon as they got outside, Sasha realized how drunk she was. She fell over, and her new companion jokingly suggested that she’d been dancing too much. “Ah,” he said, “what will happen to this after-war generation?” Everyone in Sasha’s generation, he implied, was only interested in having fun. But Sasha told him the real reason she was so drunk: she hadn’t eaten in three weeks. Perturbed, the man jumped into a taxi, slammed the door, and sped away.
The man’s comment about what will become of the “after-war generation” reveals the way many people viewed the adults in Sasha’s generation, which was known as the Lost Generation. In the years after World War I, there was a pervasive sense of aimlessness, as people tried to piece together their lives in the aftermath of one of history’s most violent and deadly wars. For many, this meant drinking heavily and wandering through cities like Paris, so it makes sense that Sasha’s new acquaintance asks aloud what will become of people like Sasha. More importantly, though, he suddenly worries that she wants to squeeze money out of him, since she has just revealed that she hasn’t eaten in three weeks. Once again, then, the novel illustrates the ways in which money can come between people, infusing relationships with suspicion and tension.
Themes
Back in the present, Sasha and Delmar enter Serge’s apartment. Serge puts on some music and dances with an African-style mask while Sasha watches. They discuss art and the different Parisian clubs that they like, and then Sasha unexpectedly breaks into tears. She apologizes, saying she doesn’t know what’s wrong with her, but Serge encourages her to cry—why hold back? She is, after all, among friends. She asks for a drink, so he gives her the last splash of liquor in his apartment. Swallowing it down, she becomes aggravated by the idea that she has let Serge and Delmar see her cry, so she barks at Serge, telling him to go out and get her some brandy. Instead of playing into her animosity, though, he ignores her and makes some tea.
Once more, Sasha gets blindsided by her own sorrow. There’s nothing particularly sad about her interaction with Serge and Delmar—in fact, she’s having a great time when she starts crying, proving that sadness is often quite unpredictable and inescapable. Her impulse to lash out at Serge suggests that she’s uncomfortable showing her emotional vulnerability to others. Embarrassed to have revealed her sadness, she tries to push Serge away by behaving rudely toward him. Fortunately for her, though, he seems to see past her defense mechanism and, as a result, doesn’t take offense.
Themes
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After some pleasant conversation, Serge announces that he has to meet a friend. He says that Delmar and Sasha should stay, since he’ll only be gone an hour. And then, on his way out, he says something to Delmar in Russian. As soon as he’s gone, Delmar comes over to Sasha and kisses her, saying that he was heartbroken to see her cry. Deflecting his romantic attention, she gives him a friendly kiss and then asks what Serge said before leaving. She learns that he told Delmar that Sasha didn’t have to buy a painting if she didn’t want to. But Sasha insists that she wants one, so Delmar sets them up so she can look at them. Taking in their vivid colors, she experiences a sort of happiness that feels like a “miracle.”
Although both Serge and Delmar treat Sasha quite well, their behavior in this scene subtly suggests that they have ulterior motives. Part of Delmar’s kindness toward Sasha, for instance, probably has to do with the fact that he’s interested in her romantically and wants to use his time alone with her to become intimate. And although Serge says that Sasha doesn’t have to buy any of his paintings, the mere fact that he thinks to say such a thing implies that he originally intended to sell her something. Nonetheless, Sasha doesn’t become suspicious of her new friends, instead relaxing into the moment and allowing herself to feel happy—a sign that she’s quite eager to simply take life “as it comes” (to borrow Delmar’s expression).
Themes
When Serge returns, Sasha says she wants to buy one of the paintings. As they talk about the price, she notices that his tone is no longer open and warm—instead, he speaks in a matter-of-fact, businesslike voice. She informs him that she doesn’t have the money on her, and he immediately turns to Delmar and says, “What did I tell you?” But then he agrees to let her have the painting, saying that she can send him the money when she gets back to London, even though she assures him that she just needs to go home and get it. They eventually arrange to meet later that day, though he also says that she doesn’t really need to pay him; she just needs to help him find “some other idiots” to buy his work.
The shift in Serge’s demeanor suggests that he’s more interested in selling his art than making a genuine connection with Sasha. Although he tells her that she doesn’t have to pay him, his comment about finding “other idiots” to buy his work implies that he originally saw Sasha as a foolish and possibly wealthy woman whom he could convince to spend lots of money on his paintings. Once again, then, money-related matters infuse potentially rewarding relationships with a strange tension, as characters either try to manipulate each other or try to protect themselves from getting manipulated.
Themes
That evening, Sasha waits for Serge, but he never shows up. Instead, Delmar arrives and apologizes on behalf of his friend. He went to Serge’s apartment, but Serge was nowhere to be found. Delmar thinks Serge is crazy, so he doesn’t understand why Sasha liked him so much—in fact, he's disappointed to hear that Sasha liked the painter. He then asks if he can see Sasha again, but Sasha says she’s very busy and that she’s leaving Paris the following week. Nonetheless, she agrees when Delmar asks if he can see her to the train station.
Delmar introduced Sasha to Serge in the first place because he wanted to help her meet interesting people who would help her feel happy. However, he now reveals that he doesn’t actually like that Sasha was fond of Serge. His intentions, then, start to seem a little hazy: did he actually want to make Sasha happy, or did he only want it to seem like he cared about her contentment? Given his romantic advance toward her earlier that day, it now seems that he has always had his own best interests in mind, hoping to endear himself to Sasha by introducing her to his friends. Again, then, Sasha has reason to be suspicious of a new acquaintance, whose intentions aren’t very straightforward.
Themes
Once Sasha returns to her hotel, she feels bad that Delmar has spent so much money buying her drinks. But then she realizes that Delmar might get a cut of the money she paid for the painting—or perhaps he’ll never give it to Serge at all.
Once more, Sasha suspects that Delmar isn’t as compassionate and kind as he first seemed. Given that she’s quite lonely in Paris, it’s undoubtedly upsetting for her to have to constantly second-guess whether or not her new acquaintances have her best interests in mind.
Themes
Sasha goes to a bar and feels as if the staff is watching and judging her. To seem cultured and respectable, she leaves the waiter a big tip and asks him for directions to the nearest movie theater, though she senses that this doesn’t impress him. He doesn’t care what she does, and yet she can’t help herself from constantly thinking about how other people perceive her.
All Sasha wants is to fit in while living in Paris, but achieving this seems to elude her. She even goes out of her way to do things for the sole purpose of impressing people like the waiter in this bar. She thinks ceaselessly about how others perceive her, but she also knows that nobody actually cares what she does—a very lonely, isolating predicament.
Themes
Sasha is drunk by the time she arrives at the movie theater. Later, she makes her way to the nearest bar and has yet another drink. Then, back at the hotel, she receives a letter from Serge in which he apologizes for not meeting her the night before. He also says that Delmar gave him the money and that he’ll try to accompany Delmar to the train station to see her off, but Sasha doubts he’ll really be there. Sitting in the dark hotel, Sasha stares at the painting and feels as if her room brings back too many memories, reminding her of every other room she has ever stayed in.
The fact that Delmar actually brought Serge the money gives Sasha reason to have a little faith in her new acquaintances—maybe they weren’t just trying to use her to their own ends. And yet, Sasha seems too sad in this moment to care that Delmar followed through with what he said he was going to do. Instead of feeling glad about this, she feels just as alone and depressed as before.
Themes
