Little Fires Everywhere

With Mia’s arrival in Shaker Heights comes the introduction of her haunting photographs. Her approach to photography is unconventional, oftentimes fashioning photographs that are obstructed or manipulated to resemble something else. Her photographs are usually nontraditional portraits that Mia describes as a way for her to “show people as I see them” (67). This foreshadows Mia’s parting gifts for the Richardsons. Each member of the Richardson family receives an art object comprised of manipulated paper or photographs that stands as a nontraditional portrait of their innermost desires or fears. For instance, Mia uses the magnet of Mr. Richardson’s collar stand to create a photographic image that resembles a blurred compass. The image is intended to allude to Mr. Richardson’s complicity in the anguish of the Mirabelle/May Ling custody trial. By taking the side of the McCulloughs, Mr. Richardson reveals his racial and class allegiance to the white upper-middle-class parents, which reveals the hypocrisy of his white liberal beliefs. While these objects are deeply intimate, Mia leaves the family with the negatives as if to say, “Do what you will with them” (329). Mia will not use the photographs as leverage in the future or for financial gain. The objects are meant to show the Richardsons who they really are as Mia perceives them.