At one point in the show, Elena asks Mia to come work in her house as a “house manager,” which is a thinly-veiled code for “maid.” Though Shaker Heights is presented as a “diverse, progressive suburb,” the luster of the town quickly wears off. Race plays a large part in the interactions between characters Mia and Pearl, who are black, face backhanded comments, microaggressions, and at times, barely-disguised racist behavior from many people in Shaker Heights, including the Richardsons. It’s clear that Elena’s hesitation towards Mia is rooted in more than just her parenting and nomadic lifestyle. Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington star in Hulu’s TV miniseries, “Little Fires Everywhere”. The Warrens’ vagabond lifestyle is not only off-putting to Elena, but raises lots of inexplicable questions about Mia’s life and Pearl’s upbringing as the plot develops. Mia, a mysterious artist, is not very outgoing towards the Richardsons, though Pearl ends up becoming friends with the family.

Elena ends up renting out her family’s duplex to tenants Mia Warren (Washington) and her daughter Pearl (Lexi Underwood), who have moved to the predominantly white neighborhood.

Elena, a part-time journalist at a local newspaper, is a stickler for the strict rules and regulations of the Shaker Heights community-even its ridiculous limit on grass height. Her character lives in a large, meticulously cleaned mansion with her husband, Bill (Joshua Jackson) and kids. Witherspoon plays an obsessive, type-A mother of four, Elena Richardson. The three of them executive-produced the show alongside Ng, as well as Lauren Neustadter and Pilar Savone. The book was discovered by Witherspoon and Washington, who went to Liz Tigelaar to adapt the novel to screen. The TV adaption, starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington, is set in the ‘90s and follows two women and their families during a tumultuous time in Shaker Heights. Though the book’s characters and plot are fictional, the town itself is real, serving as the inspiration for the book. Ng grew up in the Ohio town of Shaker Heights, a suburb just outside of Cleveland. “Little Fires Everywhere,” Celeste Ng’s 2017 novel and the basis for the new television miniseries, isn’t entirely fictitious.

Little fires everywhere themes