A critical motif of the book is the importance of accounting for complexity. After her father dies, Sotomayor is surprised that her mother is sad and that Abuelita stops hosting her family parties: her parents argued incessantly, and Juli rarely ever attended Abuelita’s parties. She assumes the adults must feel guilty. Later, she realizes this was a child’s naïveté, a simplification of a complex web of emotions both women felt at the loss of their husband and son respectively. Sotomayor also describes herself as a “very rational child,” and she looked at her loss rationally (59). Yet she misses her father. Sadness coexists with the realization that their lives improve without him. Both are equally true. Similarly, Juli’s alcoholism tortured Celina, but she loved and depended on him.

Embracing irreconcilable truths figures into Sotomayor’s assessment of Blessed Sacrament in Chapter Ten. Her experience of the school was not always favorable. She objects to the corporal punishment and harsh criticism, but she recognizes that the school served its community by putting students on a path “toward a productive and meaningful existence” (100).  

Complexity also allows Sotomayor to deepen her understanding of human motivation, which becomes essential to her success as a lawyer.