Chapter 34 — 'Instagram Party Post': Summary, Themes, and Analysis
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
Chapter 34, titled “Instagram Party Post,” is a brief verse segment that captures a single, deliberate act of self-sabotage. The narrator opens by stating that they do not like any pictures of themselves. Instead of posting a personal photograph, they create a black-and-white graphic image announcing that summer has finally arrived with a party.
The narrator then describes tagging a wide range of people in the post. This includes the kids who mock Sani, calling him “wolf boy,” as well as Sani himself—described as blond and crimped, with the word “butterfly” attached as a descriptor. The narrator also tags members of the basketball, soccer, and football teams, along with the chess squad and the debate group.
The narrator’s intentions for the party are explicitly destructive. They want the attendees to trash the house, they want the police to be called, and they want their aunt Jack summoned to the scene. The chapter closes with the narrator expressing a desire to rage and to become like a thunderstorm.
Key Events
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The narrator creates a black-and-white Instagram graphic announcing a summer party, deliberately avoiding a personal photo.
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The post tags a broad cross-section of people: Sani’s bullies, Sani himself, and members of multiple school teams and clubs.
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The narrator reveals their destructive intentions: they want the house trashed, the police called, and their aunt Jack summoned.
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The chapter ends with the narrator’s wish to rage and become a thunderstorm.
Character Development
The narrator. This chapter offers a concentrated look at the narrator’s emotional state. Their refusal to use a personal photo signals discomfort with self-image and a preference for concealment. The decision to tag Sani’s bullies alongside Sani himself is striking—it suggests either a desire to provoke conflict, a failure to protect Sani, or both. The narrator’s stated wishes for the party—trashed house, police presence, aunt Jack summoned—reveal a pattern of self-destruction and self-sabotage. The closing image of wanting to become a thunderstorm frames their rage as something vast, natural, and uncontrollable.
Sani. Though Sani does not appear directly in this chapter, he is central to it. He is described as blond and crimped, and he is the target of mockery from other kids who call him “wolf boy.” The narrator’s choice to tag both Sani and his tormentors in the same post places Sani at the center of a potentially volatile social situation.
Jack. The narrator’s aunt Jack is referenced only as someone the narrator wants to be called to the scene. This positions Jack as a figure of authority or intervention—someone whose presence would signal that things have gone seriously wrong.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
Self-image and concealment. The narrator’s refusal to use a personal photo is the chapter’s opening gesture. By choosing a black-and-white graphic instead, they hide their face while still making a public statement. This tension between visibility and concealment runs through the entire chapter: the narrator wants to be seen (the party, the tags, the chaos) but does not want to be seen as themselves.
Self-destruction and self-sabotage. The narrator’s stated goals for the party are entirely destructive. They want the house trashed, the police called, and their aunt summoned. This is not a party meant to be enjoyed; it is a party meant to implode. The narrator is engineering their own disaster.
Rage as a thunderstorm. The closing image—wanting to become a thunderstorm—is the chapter’s most powerful metaphor. A thunderstorm is natural, powerful, and destructive. It arrives without warning and leaves damage in its wake. The narrator’s desire to become one suggests that their anger has grown beyond their ability to contain it, and that they see destruction as the only release.
Cry for help. The narrator’s actions can be read as a plea for intervention. By wanting the police called and their aunt Jack summoned, the narrator is ensuring that adults will be forced to pay attention. The chaos they are planning is, in part, a way of making their distress impossible to ignore.
Social media as a stage for acting out. The Instagram post transforms private pain into public performance. The narrator uses the platform to broadcast their distress, tag a wide audience, and set events in motion. Social media becomes a tool for externalizing internal turmoil.
Bullying and its consequences. The chapter references kids who mock Sani, calling him “wolf boy.” The narrator’s decision to tag these bullies—and to invite them into their home—suggests that bullying has consequences that ripple outward, affecting not just the target but also those around them.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 34 is brief, but it is emotionally dense. It reveals the narrator’s internal state through a single, deliberate action: the creation of a social media post designed to fail. The chapter shows how the narrator externalizes pain through public performance, using a party invitation as a vehicle for self-destruction. The invitation to Sani’s bullies, the desire for police involvement, and the wish to become a thunderstorm all point to a narrator in crisis, one who is actively seeking chaos as a form of release. The chapter also establishes the social dynamics that surround Sani, positioning him as a target of bullying and the narrator as someone who is both complicit in and distressed by that dynamic. In a single page, the chapter captures the narrator’s rage, their concealment, and their desperate need for intervention.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does the narrator choose a black-and-white graphic instead of a personal photo for the party post?
The narrator states directly that they do not like any pictures of themselves. The black-and-white graphic allows them to make a public announcement without exposing their own image. This choice reflects a broader pattern of concealment: the narrator wants to be seen and heard, but not seen as themselves. The graphic is a mask that lets them broadcast their distress while keeping their identity hidden.
2. What does the narrator’s decision to tag Sani’s bullies reveal about their emotional state?
Tagging the kids who mock Sani—along with Sani himself—suggests that the narrator is not thinking clearly about consequences. It may indicate a desire to provoke conflict, a willingness to put Sani in harm’s way, or a sense of helplessness about the bullying. Combined with the narrator’s stated wish for the party to spiral out of control, the tagging suggests a narrator who is overwhelmed and acting out destructively rather than protectively.
3. How does the thunderstorm metaphor function in this chapter?
The thunderstorm is a metaphor for the narrator’s rage. A thunderstorm is powerful, natural, and destructive—it cannot be reasoned with or contained. By wanting to become one, the narrator expresses a wish to shed their ordinary self and become something overwhelming and uncontrollable. The metaphor also suggests that the narrator’s anger is building like a storm, and that the party is the lightning strike that will release it.
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