It's a Love Story

Jane’s stay on Long Island with Dan and his family propels Jane and Dan into an intimate relational dynamic. The more time that they are compelled to spend with each other, the more evident Jane’s need for authentic connection becomes. Throughout these chapters, she and Dan eat dinner with Dan’s family, share pleasant conversations, visit the beach, lie awake talking, brainstorm about True Story, and discuss the details of their past and present lives. The seaside Long Island setting is essential to facilitating these deepening aspects of Jane and Dan’s relationship. It’s a Love Story is a summer romance that uses the seasonal setting to inspire freedom, relaxation, and connection between the primary characters. Jane and Dan are thousands of miles away from their urban life in Los Angeles. They have a week to spend outside the office getting to know each other, enjoying the outdoors, and communing with family and friends. These activities are all staples of the long, hot summer days—contextual details that draw Jane and Dan closer to one another while fulfilling the conventions of the summer romance genre.

Jane and Dan’s burgeoning dynamic conveys The Importance of Vulnerability in Intimate Relationships as Monaghan continues to lean into the forced proximity trope to draw Jane and Dan into a closer bond. When the two are sharing the same room, lying in their beds together, and lounging on the beach, they engage in intimate conversation. Although Jane isn’t used to opening up “to anyone besides Clem” (114), she finds herself confiding in Dan. She not only tells him “I have no idea who I am” but also opens up about how her experiences as a child star continue to impact how she carries and regards herself in the present, tying the development of their relationship in with the theme of Reconciling Past and Present Identities (115).

Throughout these chapters, Jane’s forthrightness surprises even her. Her internal monologues amidst her and Dan’s dialogues convey how his presence is beginning to soften her emotionally: “His eyes are intensely focused, […] and Dan doesn’t miss a thing. It’s almost as if he could pull [any] sentence right out of me. I hold his gaze for a few beats before I actually feel myself weakening. There’s power in his quiet; it makes room for something” (114). Jane uses diction including “intensely,” “focused,” “pull,” “gaze,” “power,” and “quiet” to describe Dan’s demeanor—language that enacts Dan’s transformative impact on Jane’s psyche. Rather than repelling her, his attention makes Jane feel safe, seen, and understood. In turn, she feels herself “weakening”—a verb that implies Dan is compelling her to let down her guard and to trust him. The more vulnerability she shows Dan, the more she invites him into her heart. In turn, she gradually learns how to identify and process her emotional experiences. For example, the scene in which Jane calls Clem and confesses her interest in Dan conveys how she is changing. She isn’t bottling up her sexual and romantic desire—instead, she claims her experience. At the same time, Dan is confiding in Jane, too. Dan’s willingness to be vulnerable with Jane endears him to her. She stops seeing Dan as an enemy and begins to regard him as an equal with his own humanity—because Dan is willing to be open, Jane does, too.

The time Jane spends on Long Island also conveys The Transformative Power of Friendship and Family. In Jane’s personal life, family has always been an amorphous concept. Her father died when she was a toddler, she is an only child, and her relationship with her mother is complex. Although Jane loves her mom, she often feels frustrated with her mom’s obsession with romance and inability to acknowledge life’s difficulties. These familial conflicts augment Jane’s isolation and insecurity. Being around the Finnegans, however, begins to alter her perception of family, love, and community. When she’s with Dan and his brothers, she starts wondering how things would be different for her if she had siblings, too: “Maybe we’d fight and make up; maybe I’d know how to fight and make up. I’d have a favorite who I would text right now so that I could tell her that Dan is softer at home” (128). Jane uses the conditional mood in this passage, which enacts her imaginative state of mind. She is fantasizing about a different family structure, one like the Finnegans, that would offer her more footing in reality and in herself. While Jane isn’t Dan’s partner, she does garner an immediate sense of belonging and care from spending time with the Finnegans. These dynamics convey how much Jane needs a healthy support system and foreshadow the transformative effect Dan’s network will have on her in the future.