Just Friends
50 pages • 1-hour read
Haley PhamJust Friends
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Symbols & Motifs
Content Warning: Both this guide and the source text discuss death, illness, and grief.
Journals
Journals serve as a symbol of hidden dreams in Just Friends. A journal first appears when Blair writes Lottie’s life stories in her journal before Lottie passes away. Blair seeks to preserve Lottie’s lived experience, to keep parts of Lottie with her.
Blair also had journals when she was a child that she practiced writing in, and when Blair’s mother rediscovers the childhood journals, she calls Blair’s writing “cute little stories,” causing Blair to think, “That’s precisely why I never shared [the stories] with anyone. Anyone other than Declan.” (98). Blair views her childhood dreams of being a writer as embarrassing, as the journal represents the dreams she’s turned her back on because of her familial financial pressures.
Declan also has a journal, and Blair notices it during one of her early shifts at the coffee shop. Blair remembers that Declan “used to carry a leather pocket journal that would fit in the back of his jeans, so at odds with the football equipment spilling out of his bag” (118). Blair never knew what Declan wrote in his journals, but she assumed it was football plays. Now, Declan’s lost his football career, but he’s kept his journal. Declan later reveals that he draws blueprints for his birdhouses, renovations, and other construction projects. When he finds out the truth about the letter that he sent Blair and returns it to her, Blair notices the letter is “a piece of composition notebook paper. Its edges are frayed like it was torn out of a journal” (294). The representation of Declan’s continued love for Blair and desire to be with her is a piece of paper from Declan’s journal, further establishing the symbolic connection between journals and dreams.
Birdhouses
Birdhouses are a motif that invoke Blair and Declan’s relationship throughout the novel. Blair sees the first birdhouse dangling from the ceiling of Declan’s coffee shop, and she notes that they look “handmade” (34). When Blair returns to the coffee shop for her training session, she sees another birdhouse, noting, “This one looks like a hand-carved, miniature version of the fairytale cottages downtown: a sloping roof, curved door, and circular window” (62). Blair admires the new birdhouse, but she doesn’t yet recognize that the birdhouse mirrors the cottage Declan owns and the cottage she’ll soon inherit from Lottie. As Blair and Declan grow closer, Declan reveals he crafts the birdhouses himself, and Blair tells Declan that she likes the birdhouses and “could look at them all day” (120).
After Blair and Declan repair their relationship, Declan presents Blair with a birdhouse of her own, telling her, “All of the birdhouses I’ve ever built remind me of you” (304). Declan hides a tiny box within Blair’s birdhouse where he stores a piece of paper and a pebble that he uses to propose to Blair, illustrating the symbolic importance of birdhouses to the development of their relationship.
The Lost Letter
The lost letter is a symbol of Grief as a Catalyst for Reexamining Identity. The letter doesn’t appear in the narrative until two-thirds of the way through the plot, when Declan and Blair finally discuss their fight, the accident, and the years they spent apart. Declan reveals he sent Blair a letter a few months after the accident, but Blair never received the letter while studying at Pepperdine University. Blair also blamed herself in the aftermath of the accident and breakup, but she assures him, “If I had gotten that letter, I would have forgiven you, Declan” (204). Blair and Declan forgive each other, though they both believe that the only person who needs forgiveness is themselves.
When Blair finally receives the letter, she read it. After Declan pours his heart out and apologizes for pushing Blair away while he grieved, he ends the letter with an empathetic acknowledgement:
But if you never respond to this letter, I will respect it as your choice to move on with your life. You deserve to be with someone who loves you in a way that makes you feel like the funniest girl in the world […] And if that’s not with me, I’ll wish you true happiness (297).
Blair learns she never received the letter because Declan’s mother Gwen took the letter from the mailbox, an act that Declan describes as protective, “like the sudden loss of control made her go into overdrive trying to protect [him] from ever getting hurt again” (300). Gwen’s grief at nearly losing her child caused her to act impulsively and meddle in Declan and Blair’s relationship, inadvertently compounding the grief that Blair and Declan felt during their years apart. Gwen, like Blair and Declan, reexamines her decision after Declan confronts her and manages to find the letter, letting Blair and Declan reunite after heartache in a mature, adult relationship after their independent growth.
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