theme

The novel plays with other ways that identity is formed. There is the sense, in Gambo's stories, that part of one's identity is one's family history. Gambo tells Jeff that she wants to "pour" herself and her experiences into Jeff so that he can "take it on into your life." Jeff temporarily feels he has an identity as a "Boudrault of Charleston." He rejects this identity after Melody and Gambo hurt him, but by the end of the novel, he realizes that "whatever it might mean to be a Boudrault of Charleston" is valuable to him. This is the reason he keeps Gambo's jade ring. Towards the end of the novel, Jeff tells also Dicey that he wants her to meet the Professor, because he feels that you can't really know someone unless you know his family. Jeff has recognized that the Professor is part of his identity, just as the Tillermans are a part of Dicey, and he embraces that fact.