47 pages • 1-hour read
It's a Love Story
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Symbols & Motifs
Oak Shore, Long Island
The Oak Shore, Long Island, setting symbolizes freedom and renewal. When Jane Jackson accompanies Dan Finnegan to Oak Shore, she isn’t sure what to expect. She knows she and Dan will be staying with his family and hunting down Jack Quinlan in the meantime. However, she doesn’t anticipate how this idyllic seaside location will open her heart and teach her to love and heal.
Traveling to Oak Shore offers Jane an escape from her vocational and personal challenges back in Los Angeles. Whereas LA is a bustling urban environment that pressures Jane to prove herself and succeed, Oak Shore inspires her to rest and relax. Her description of the setting upon arriving in Oak Shore foreshadows its emotional impact on her:
It’s a classic small town, like you’d see on TV. Andy Griffith could live here. Library, gift shop, bakery, diner. Old-fashioned streetlights and leafy elm trees. Kids are riding bikes without helmets, steering with one hand while holding ice cream cones. We have pockets of this in Los Angeles […] but they look different, like they’re too new (81).
Oak Shore is a safe place that facilitates peace and family life. The environment is defined by vegetation, the smell of the nearby ocean, and children playing. The quaintness of this location offers Jane a sense of internal calm, which gradually helps her in Reconciling Past and Present Identities to confront her past trauma and pursue healing. While here, she not only spends time with the Finnegans but also swims in the ocean, lies on the beach, takes boat rides, and bikes around the neighborhood. These are quintessential summer activities that liberate Jane from her intense need for control over reality and her emotions.
True Story Script
The True Story script is symbolic of authentic intimacy and love. Jane is thrilled the moment she reads the script and is determined to produce it with Clearwater Studios. It’s the first script she’s brought to her boss Nathan, which signifies its significance to Jane as a professional and an artist. The script also brings Jane and Dan together. They haven’t spoken since their falling out over Star Crossed, but True Story offers them a second chance. They discover their mutual attachment to the script, which becomes a lasting point of connection throughout the novel. The way Dan describes True Story at the novel’s start offers further insight into its connective and symbolic power: “Of course this is a comedy, but what I love is the quiet romance that’s growing in the background. When all the laughs and music die down, it ends with the two of them” (16).
Dan’s description of the script also applies to his and Jane’s burgeoning love affair. Their initial connection is inspired by metaphoric laughter and music—they often joke and banter while exchanging artistic ideas. However, these aren’t the sole defining aspects of their love. Over time, they build a connection based on their mutual appreciation of one another’s humanity. Their love quietly builds in the background, paralleling the couple in True Story. Jane and Dan’s work on the script in turn teaches Jane that she’s not only lovable, but that true, lasting intimacy is founded on vulnerability and trust.
Painting
The painting that Jane and Dan make together on Long Island symbolizes both cohesion and trust. The author uses Jane and Dan’s collaborative work on the art project to further reify their developing emotional connection. When they first start the project, Dan reminds Jane that it’s supposed to be fun: “You get it started, and then the paint’s going to do what it’s going to do. It just sort of takes over” (165). Dan is encouraging Jane to let go. He wants her to let the artwork move her, instead of trying to control the outcome of the project. The characters are also working together on the painting. They both have to contribute their own ideas, which represents the exchange required to foster reciprocal, balanced relationships.
When Jane studies the painting back at her LA office, she discovers insight into her and Dan’s relationship: “It’s sloppy and dotted with little bursts of beauty, a bit of a blur, like the week we were together” (300). The painting does not depict one scene or image—instead, it conveys the tenor and mood of Jane and Dan’s love. It is filled with specks, bursts, and blurs—paint marks that echo the emotional peaks and valleys of Jane and Dan’s love affair thus far.
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