Hopeless

Although Hopeless focuses on the developing romantic relationship between Beau and Bailey, the novel also traces their individual journeys toward self-actualization. Their alternating first-person points of view enact their parallel ventures toward change. When Beau first returns from overseas, he does not know how to remake his life on his own terms. He feels claustrophobic in Chestnut Springs because “no one even knows the shit I’ve done. The importance of the things I was doing. My missions? They saved lives, they changed the world. And now? Now I’m supposed to…fix fences?” (137). The mundanity of his life in the present starkly contrasts with the intensity of his life in the past. Outside the context of combat, Beau is unsure who he is supposed to be. Even the way he expresses himself is a symptom of his time in the war; he is often angry, overly protective, and volatile because he is channeling his defensiveness from his deployment into his interpersonal relationships back home. Over the course of the novel, he must reorient to civilian life so that he might rediscover himself as an autonomous individual.

Meanwhile, Bailey struggles to claim her autonomy and agency because of her family’s negative reputation. Bailey has always dreamed big and wanted a better life for herself. However, her brothers’ and father’s behaviors have directly limited her opportunities and kept her from the life she has imagined for herself. She lost her job at the hospital and has only been able to find work at The Railspur since; her limited vocational opportunities impede her ability to save money and leave town to carve her own path. No matter where she goes and what she does, she feels afraid of how others will see her: “I can’t rent anything in town because no one will approve me. I’m trying so hard to fly under the radar. I’m trying so hard to start fresh. And then there’s this part of me that feels guilty for it—like I […] don’t deserve to start over” (110). Bailey disparages herself because she is unaccustomed to exercising her agency. Her negative self-regard inhibits her ability to explore herself and the world without fear.

Beau and Bailey are fiercely independent people, and even as their relationship helps them see themselves in new ways, it is up to them, as individuals, to grow beyond the things that are limiting them. Beau consistently encourages Bailey and tells her that she is strong and deserving. Bailey assures Beau that he is allowed to feel pain and to show vulnerability. Their acceptance of one another empowers them, but they each must work to believe this new understanding of themselves. Although love and support give them both a new way to understand themselves and their places in the world, it is up to each of them, individually, to reframe the way they see themselves. By the novel’s end, they are able to stand up for who they are and feel self-pride without depending on someone else’s assessment, even if it is based in love and support.