The Love Hypothesis

49 pages1-hour read

Fiction

Novel

Adult

Published in 2021

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Symbols & Motifs

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of emotional abuse, gender discrimination, and racism.

Coffee

Throughout the novel, coffee symbolizes Olive and Adams’s bond, and its significance deepens as their relationship evolves. At the start of the novel, they have their first fake date at a coffee shop because this seems like a suitably safe and impersonal location for the emotionally guarded characters. However, coffee takes on a more personal and prominent role in their relationship as they build trust and intimacy. Many of their love story’s key moments occur in cafés, such as the scene in which Adam supports Olive while she presents her research to Tom and their subsequent celebration when Tom offers her a place in his lab. Additionally, Adam’s teasing about Olive’s fondness for sugary drinks and the messages he sends her about different café offerings indicate their growing closeness and her constant presence in his thoughts. Through the symbolic significance of coffee, Hazelwood shows how Olive and Adam grow from distant colleagues to a close-knit couple.

Academia

The Love Hypothesis is set against the backdrop of the rigorous world of academic education. In early chapters, the pecking order of Olive’s world is laid out. Tenured professors like Adam are at the top, and grad students like Olive are at the bottom. Olive and Adam’s relationship crosses several academic boundaries, and since Adam is the elite among the elite, it opens doors for Olive that would otherwise remain closed to someone so low on the food chain. Tom exploits this idea later when he threatens Olive and tells her she only received attention because she’s dating Adam. Tom’s words are not true, as gatekeeping methods like blind submission processes where papers are read anonymously are put in place to offer those in the lower ranks a fairer chance.

Anh represents another angle of academia. Historically, women—particularly women of color—have been underrepresented and excluded from opportunities in academia afforded their white (typically male) counterparts. Anh is the only BIPOC person in her class and, aside from Olive, the only woman. Anh’s work to promote the voices of women and the BIPOC community in academia symbolizes the real-life efforts being made toward a more inclusive education system for all. As someone familiar with the rigors of academia, Hazelwood drew upon her own experiences, as well as from those of friends, to create a realistic depiction of the struggles facing graduate students—from discrimination to low pay and ridiculous hours. Realistic feelings of accomplishment and joy help to make the rigors worthwhile.

Sleep

Sleep functions as a motif of Balancing Work with Personal Life, illustrating the difficulty of maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Olive frequently has to forgo sleep to keep up with the pressures of academia, especially when Tom increases that pressure on her by asking for her report early. Hazelwood uses the protagonist’s chronic sleep deprivation to comment on the ways that those in STEM, particularly financially precarious researchers and students like Olive, struggle to meet their basic needs despite performing considerable amounts of work. As Olive’s dynamic with Adam evolves, her relationship with sleep shifts as well. After the couple’s first sexual encounter, she experiences a rare, restful night. Their breakup leads her to spend a great deal of time asleep, which shows that the difficult emotions of her personal life can’t always be kept at bay by her methodical professional identity. The author uses sleep to illustrate the importance of recognizing and meeting one’s basic human needs as an essential step towards achieving balance between one’s personal and professional identities.