97 pages • 3 hours read
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Symbols & Motifs
God and Religion
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child sexual abuse.
Hopkins uses the motif of God and religion to symbolize judgment and develop the theme of The Impact of Family and Societal Pressures on Youth. Despite their religious upbringing, each teenager brings up religious imagery, which signifies how religious judgment is embedded in society. This judgment is closely tied to sex as the teenagers struggle to figure out if they believe in sex to show love or if they believe that it is only meant to control others. Eden repeatedly describes her fear of “burning” if she touches Andrew, which symbolizes her fear of hell or punishment. Seth’s experience listening to his mother discuss his cousin’s teenage pregnancy led him to conclude that many people believe that sex outside of marriage makes someone a “whore,” especially since his mother said that it makes his cousin “a whore in God’s eyes” (20).
Seth also finds himself wondering if Satan has developed new skills and tries to hurt people through love rather than tempting them to sin. Even the concept of the setting of the novel being in “Sin City” shows how Hopkins uses the symbols of religion to fuel the narrative. These instances show how religious beliefs, especially surrounding shame around sex, lead teenagers to make judgments about their self-worth. While characters like Eden find a balance between judgmental religion and acceptance, other characters, such as Seth, grapple with finding their self-worth because of the toxic nature of these beliefs.
Las Vegas
Las Vegas is a symbol of exploitation and abuse. While Las Vegas offers a promise of escape for several of the characters, they soon realize that the city has a dark underbelly. Seth describes the city as being obsessed with skin, especially young skin. This reasserts Seth’s belief that he is only a trophy and that he is not worthy of love, only objectification. Las Vegas’s obsession with youth also highlights the nature of the commercial sexual exploitation of children in the city. While Ginger and Eden both learn at the end of the novel that there are resources available for victims of the commercial sexual exploitation of children and better understand The Possibility of Healing in the Face of Adversity, neither girl realizes that there are support systems until it is almost too late. When Ginger first arrives in the city, she decides that the city’s nickname “Sin City” is more accurate than she believed. She does not believe that the city’s motto “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” is accurate (377), however, because she knows that the things that people do in the city follow them for the rest of their lives. While Eden finds hope in Las Vegas, Hopkins shows that the unfamiliar nature of the city causes the teenagers to fear it, rather than look for help.
“I Love You”
The phrase “I love you” is used several times in the novel as a motif that emphasizes The Struggle With Identity and Self-Worth. Hopkins shows how this phrase can be used to exploit other people, hurt people, or give people hope. Each teenager’s storyline is affected by how these words are used in their lives and if other people reciprocate them. The significance of these words shows how each teenager places their self-worth in the hands of someone else. For example, Whitney realizes that she should never have said the words to Lucas once he breaks up with her because it damaged her more than if she had never said it to him. Whitney’s inability to see the weight of these words shows why she believes Bryn when he says them, even though she knows that he might be lying to her.
The words “I love you” when used in the right context, however, give the characters hope especially after moments of vulnerability. While Eden, Cody, and Ginger experience happiness from hearing their partners tell them that they love them, Whitney and Seth only experience pain from these words. Seth experiences hate toward Loren, who writes these words to him because Loren abandoned him, whereas Whitney almost dies from a drug overdose because she desperately believes that Bryn loves her, even after he repeatedly abuses her. The significance of these words propels the narrative forward, and Hopkins emphasizes the moments when characters say these words for the wrong reasons as influential to their character development.
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