53 pages • 1-hour read
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Symbols & Motifs
Andrew
Noah Morgan and Nick Leister’s new baby is symbolic of hope and redemption. Before Noah and Nick discover that Noah is pregnant, they feel hopeless about their future as a couple. They still have lingering feelings for one another, but Guilt, Regret, and the Past preclude their chances at a sustainable romantic future. Therefore, when they learn that Noah is pregnant, the baby offers them the opportunity to make amends and inspires them to hope for a new future as a couple and a family.
The baby also helps Nick and Noah heal from their traumatic pasts. Nick wants “to be a part of [the] baby’s life” because he’s determined not to repeat his parents’ mistakes (331). Noah wants to keep and raise the baby with Nick because she also wants to reinvent her fraught familial dynamic. The baby gives Nick and Noah the chance to make a new family structure that transcends the pain of their respective upbringings.
Andrew also heals Noah and Nick’s relationship and redeems them from their mistakes and romantic past. Instead of focusing on how they’ve hurt one another, Noah and Nick begin to focus on preparing for his arrival. They decide that they need to create a loving environment for their child and reconcile with each other on the baby’s behalf. The baby thus leads them towards renewal and gives them a reason to forgive one another and redefine what love means to them.
Pendant
Noah’s pendant is symbolic of love. Nick gave Noah the necklace on her 18th birthday. It is in the shape of a heart, meant to represent Nick’s affection for Noah. Noah never takes the pendant off because it lets her feel close to Nick. Even a year after they break up, Noah continues to wear the pendant: It “ha[s] been [her] anchor all [this] time” (108), as it’s a constant reminder of the love she and Nick once shared.
When Nick notices that Noah is still wearing the necklace, he takes it off of her and insists that she has “to stop clinging to something that doesn’t exist” (100). Nick is trying to convince himself that his and Noah’s love is dead. He has survived the past months by telling himself that Noah’s betrayal is evidence that she doesn’t love him and that his heartbreak is evidence that he no longer loves her. He takes the pendant from Noah to further satisfy these delusions.
Nick gives Noah the pendant back at the end of the novel. In doing so, he is professing his love to Noah once more. He also has a new blue stone set into the heart—an addition meant to symbolize Andrew’s integral role in their romance. Noah puts the pendant back on, which reiterates her sustained love for Nick and highlights the Redemptive Power of Love.
LA House
The new house that Nick buys for Noah in LA is symbolic of their future together. The “discreet white house” is “in a nice area, with palm trees on the streets and well-tended yards” (382). It has “a wraparound porch and wood steps leading to the door” and looks to Noah “like something from a fairy tale” (382). The house isn’t Nick’s style, but it is Noah’s dream home. Nick buys it for her to prove that he wants a life with her for years to come, and the traditional stable nature of the house and neighborhood underscores the type of family they envision becoming.
As soon as Noah sees the interior of the house, she can imagine her future with Nick and their family. The prospective baby room particularly inspires and moves her. It’s “painted white, with the same wood floors as downstairs” (384). Studying the space, Noah can immediately see their “baby in that room sleeping placidly, playing, crying, laughing” (384). She can also “see the three of [them] sharing [their] finest moments” in the house at large (384). In these ways, the house offers Noah and Nick a chance to start over.
The house’s largely white exterior and interior archetypally represent peace and renewal—thus foreshadowing the idyllic life Noah and Nick will build with their family here. The characters move here after they leave Nick’s apartment. Starting their family life in a new living space lets them physically separate themselves from the past. The house is new to them, and thus free of reminders of their guilt, regret, and the past.
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