Full Measures

This section thematically centers on Weighing the Risk of Love Against the Fear of Loss, charting Ember’s attempt to overcome her trauma-induced aversion to military life, only for the man she chooses to represent that fear. Her initial declaration, “All that comes out of that are knocks on your front door. Not worth it” (196), establishes the terror that shapes her perspective. Her conclusion is drawn from catastrophic personal experience, linking love for a service member directly to inevitable loss. Given Ember’s recent and devastating breakup with Riley, her decision to pursue Josh is an act of rebellion against her general fear of commitment, a choice to prioritize potential happiness over safety from the pain of another breakup. The narrative structure then dismantles this resolve when she discovers Josh’s secret: that he has served in the military, even in the exact location where her father died. This revelation, the climax of this section, validates Ember’s deepest anxieties. The tragedy for her isn’t simply that Josh is a soldier, but that her attempt to reclaim agency over her emotional life led her directly back to the source of her original trauma. His secretive behavior and failure to tell her about his connection to the military add to her pain.

Josh’s character is developed through a duality that both masks and explains his hidden life. The flirtatious and distant public persona he adopts at the Kappa party aligns with the “player” reputation that initially makes Ember wary. This behavior is a protective armor that keeps emotional intimacy at a distance. However, this persona immediately contrasts with the vulnerable, attentive man he becomes in private moments, intuiting Ember’s emotional needs and confessing his long-standing admiration for her. This duality isn’t a contradiction but a representation of how he compartmentalizes his life. His maturity, forged through his mother’s illness and his own career-ending injury, grants him empathy that his superficial party persona belies. When he explains his gunshot wound by vaguely alluding to being in the “wrong place at the wrong time” (235), the phrase operates on multiple levels. For Ember, it’s a superficial explanation for a scar that clearly isn’t superficial; for Josh, it’s a carefully worded half-truth that protects his secret. This deliberate omission underscores the central conflict: His understanding of responsibility, which makes him a worthy partner, stems from the military identity that he fears Ember can’t accept.

The setting of hockey arenas and their connection to structure thematically reflect The Illusion of Control in a World of Uncertainty. Ember’s adherence to structure has been central to her identity, a coping mechanism for the chaos and increased potential for loss in military life, which was realized through the casualty notification of her father’s death. Her grief is compounded by the loss of the predictable future she had mapped out with Riley, leaving her adrift. The narrative presents Josh as a parallel figure whose life plan was likewise destroyed. His dream of playing Division I hockey represented a future built through discipline but abruptly ended by injury. The ice rink, therefore, becomes a complex space: It’s where he’s most skilled, yet it’s also a reminder of the future he lost. His encouragement for Ember to apply to Vanderbilt is a pivotal moment, demonstrating his desire for her to build a new plan based on her ambitions. In this way, he offers her a path to reclaiming control, ironically, while hiding an aspect of his own life that represents a lack of control for military families.

Objects become increasingly significant in these chapters, culminating in a scene in which several are imbued with the weight of Ember’s love, betrayal, and terror. The meaning of the state championship photo shifts dramatically. Initially, it represents an idealized high school crush. When she discovers the uncropped version at Josh’s apartment, revealing that he was looking at her, the photo suggests a fated connection. However, its final placement on his bed next to his uniform and Purple Heart reconfigures its meaning entirely. It no longer signifies a shared destiny but a shared doom, linking his life as a soldier directly to the idealized boy she admired. The military uniform itself is the section’s most significant symbol. Previously an abstract signifier of institutional power, the military uniform in Josh’s closet becomes a personal representation of betrayal. Ember finds the fabric both “foreign and familiar” (255), a description that captures the dissonance of seeing the institution she fears embodied in the man she loves. The discovery scene excavates his hidden identity, as each item (the uniform, the rank, the Purple Heart citation) unearths a layer of the secret that destroys her trust in him and her commitment to pursuing their relationship.

The narrative structure in this section relies on strategic foreshadowing and withholding of information to amplify the emotional impact when it’s finally revealed. Clues to Josh’s military service are planted that are apparent in hindsight but ambiguous in the moment. The Colorado College players call him a “hero” and reference his leg injury in terms that suggest something more than a sports accident. He vaguely attributes his monthly disappearances to “scholarship stuff,” an explanation that is plausible yet intentionally thin. Jagger’s uncharacteristic evasiveness and Gus’s innocent statement about “Sergeant Walker” and “drill” incrementally build tension, creating dramatic irony because the novel reveals the truth before Ember learns it. This structural choice heightens the impact of Ember’s shock at the revelation and invites greater empathy toward her. By concealing the truth in plain sight, the narrative mirrors Josh’s actions, forcing Ember (and readers) to reevaluate every interaction she had with Josh through the new lens of his military identity.