Grief
One of the most prominent themes in Me (Moth) is grief—deep sorrow caused by someone's death. At the novel's outset, McBride introduces the theme with Moth's discussion of the tragic car crash that resulted in the deaths of Moth's parents and brother. Two years after this event, Moth continues to grieve for her family, going about her days while avoiding social interactions and refusing to dance—an activity she has always loved. Once the reader realizes that Moth is a ghost who died in the same crash as her family, Moth's grief takes on new meaning: traumatized by the accident, Moth remains in a purgatory-like state of perpetual grief that sees her decline to take part in life while simultaneously refusing to accept death. In this way, Moth is shown to be stuck in the denial phase of her grieving process, and it is only with Sani's help that she learns to accept the deaths of not just her family members but of herself.
Isolation
Isolation is another major theme in Me (Moth). From the beginning of the novel, McBride portrays Moth as extremely isolated in her new life. After losing her family, Moth has spent two years in a Virginia suburb with her aunt. During this time, Moth has made no friends at school and seems to have little interaction with her aunt. Moth is so isolated that bullies don't even bother teasing her. For Moth, Sani is the first person to recognize her existence, and Moth soon discovers that Sani, too, tends to isolate from others. For both characters, their isolation is informed by trauma that prevents them from being vulnerable with other people. While Moth assumes that people avoid her because they know of her family tragedy, for Sani, a history of mental illness and a susceptibility to being influenced by supernatural beings has made him a pariah in his Navajo community. However, after McBride reveals that Moth is dead, the reader realizes that Moth's isolation is due to the fact that she is invisible to everyone but Sani. With this revelation, McBride emphasizes the emotional impact of social isolation by turning Moth into a literal ghost.
Mental Illness
Mental illness is a crucial theme in Me (Moth). McBride explores this theme mainly through Sani, who is shown throughout the novel to struggle with his mental health. When Moth is first getting to know Sani, she notices his habit of either taking herbal pills in clear capsules or blue-and-white prescription drugs. Moth comments on how her brother used to take the same blue-and-white pills "for the black hole in his center"—a euphemism for depression—and that he was more creative and playful when the medication worked. As the narrative progresses, it becomes clear that Sani struggles to take his medication consistently, complaining that his ability to see "the truth" is hampered. Moth also notes that the herbal pills given to Sani by his father, a traditional healer, seem to make Sani less available to her. Unbeknownst to Moth, the herbal pills are intended to ward off spirits, and therefore Moth is misinterpreting the pills' efficacy as Sani being emotionally distant. To Western doctors, Sani's ability to see the dead would likely be interpreted as a disorder like bipolar or paranoid schizophrenia. For Sani's father, his son's ability to see the dead is harmful to Sani's health because it makes him detach from regular life and appear to live in a world created within his mind, such as he does when spending all his time with Moth. Ultimately, Sani listens to his father's warning about spending too much time communicating with the dead, recognizing the need for Moth to move on to the afterlife so Sani can enjoy life again.
Ritual
In Me (Moth), ritual is a crucial theme. Defined as a religious ceremony consisting of actions performed according to a prescribed order, ritual is shown to be a fundamental component of Moth's identity, as she has learned Hoodoo spell casting and prayer from her grandfather. But before establishing the prominence of Hoodoo in Moth's life, McBride subtly introduces the importance of ritual to the story in the first chapter, "Moth Egg," in which Moth quotes Grandfather as saying, "This is long work. A finding spell for roots destined to twine." While the quote is left initially without context, as the book goes on, Moth dreams of her grandfather and the lessons he taught her. In one of these dreams, Grandfather says the quote to Moth as he casts a spell at a Nashville cemetery. The Hoodoo ritual involves burying significant objects while praying before uniting the objects in the soil. Later in the book, McBride reveals that Grandfather's cemetery ritual ensured that Sani, a boy capable of seeing ghosts, would one day be a companion for Moth, helping guide her during her delayed journey to the afterlife. Without Grandfather's belief in the power of ritual, Moth and Sani would never have found each other.
Abandonment
Abandonment is another dominant theme in Me (Moth). While abandonment can be defined as the act of deserting someone or somewhere with no intention of returning, abandonment can also mean not meeting a person's emotional needs. Early in the book, Moth experiences the emotional abandonment of her aunt refusing to discuss the accident; she also feels her needs are being abandoned when Aunt Jack doesn't buy her any clothing, leaving Moth to borrow what she can. Aunt Jack's emotional abandonment turns into physical abandonment when she leaves for the summer without telling Moth where she is going or when she will return. McBride also explores the theme through Sani, who repeatedly mentions being abandoned by his mother and by his voice. After Sani's mother left Sani's father to start a new "white family" in Virginia, Sani resents his mother for leaving him torn between two homes and two cultures. Sani also feels his mother's emotional abandonment when she does nothing to intervene when his stepfather is verbally and physically abusive. Abandonment also arises when Sani speaks of his voice leaving him, by which he means becoming so depressed that he has no will to sing. Although Moth and Sani feel mutually understood because of their shared tendency to view themselves as victims of abandonment, Moth and Sani simultaneously fear getting close to one another, having been conditioned to expect the people they love to leave them or ignore their needs.
Transformation
Transformation—defined either as a dramatic change in appearance or form, or as an animal's metamorphosis—is a key theme in Me (Moth). Throughout the book, McBride emphasizes the thematic importance of transformation by having Moth speculate on the life cycle of moths, creatures that go from being caterpillars to being wrapped in a cocoon to emerging as winged insects. Unbeknownst to Moth, her purgatory-like state of being is akin to the cocoon stage: trapped between her mortal life and her eternal life as a spirit, Moth remains in a bewildering intermediary zone as she attempts to go about her old life with no one recognizing her presence. Sani finds himself in a similar cocoon stage, torn between a depressing life with his abusive stepfather and his life on the Navajo Nation reservation, where he is ostracized for his mental illness and for his susceptibility to spirits. Moth comments on how the intimacy she develops with Sani feels like a shared cocoon. Ultimately, with each other's encouragement and love, both characters emerge from their cocoon stages transformed. While Moth sprouts wings and flies to the afterlife to join her ancestors, Sani pursues his education at Juilliard and becomes a successful musician.
Trauma
Another crucial theme McBride explores in Me (Moth) is trauma—emotional shock or physical injury following a distressing event. After losing her parents and brother, Moth lives with the trauma of having been the only one to survive the car accident (or so she believes); this trauma manifests symbolically as a scar on Moth's forehead. The trauma of the accident prevents Moth from dancing because it is an activity she associates with joy. For Sani, there is trauma associated with leaving his home on the Navajo Nation reservation to live with his mother in suburban Virginia. Sani's trauma intensifies when his stepfather physically and verbally abuses him. As with Moth, Sani finds that his trauma stands in the way of his creative expression. To begin the healing process, Sani and Moth set off on their road trip to Sani's father's house. As they become more intimate, Sani and Moth find they are more capable of enjoying singing and dancing—joyful activities that their traumas hindered. By the end of the novel, Moth moves out of her traumatic purgatorial state as a ghost to join her ancestors in the afterlife. Meanwhile, Sani embarks on a career as a singer-songwriter, proving that he too has moved past his trauma and reactivated his creative self.
