Moxie

“I wince a little as I watch [Lucy] staring at her still-closed textbook like somebody smacked her across the face with it and she’s still getting her breath back. It’s obvious she’s trying not to cry.”

Vivian describes Lucy as looking as if she’d been struck by her textbook to characterize how shocked Lucy is when her intelligent discussion in class is subverted by Mitchell Wilson telling her, “Make me a sandwich”; Lucy’s education is completely thrown off by this rude and inappropriate disruption. The “make me a sandwich” line is the inciting incident of the plot because Lucy’s humiliation rouses Vivian’s anger. Many of Vivian’s actions to support Moxie will be spurred by her wish to support and protect other girls she sees being harassed.

“I know that now she’s tired and exhausted and worried about paying all the bills. But there was a time when she listened to this music. When she raged and roared and rioted. When she wasn’t dutiful. There was a time when she lived out loud. And no one can take that away from her.”

Part of Vivian’s maturity is recognizing the compromises of adulthood and the sacrifices her mother has made for Vivian. Vivian’s inspiration to create Moxie comes from the wish to connect or understand this younger, wilder version of her mother because Vivian feels she could identify with and relate to her. Vivian has been dutiful in part because of her mother’s example, but discovering the shoebox and her mother’s past makes Vivian wonder if rebellion and resistance could be the answers to the anger she’s feeling.

“Something charges through my body, and I look down and see my hands are balled up into fists. I stare at them for a moment, surprised, and then will them to release.”

Vivian describes her anger at the football players’ offensive behavior and harassment as a force that takes over her body, to her own surprise.