49 pages • 1-hour read
The Summer Pact
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Themes
The Power of Friendship
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and substance use.
The Summer Pact opens with Hannah questioning what makes friendships so powerful—in particular, those friendships formed in the young adult years. Over the course of the novel, the narrative offers answers to that question and goes on to examine the mechanics that help friendships endure even as life circumstances change and people mature.
In the opening lines of the Prologue, Hannah’s musings establish this theme as an important element of the novel. She posits several theories about coming-of-age friendships, reflecting that they “fill the void of adolescent loneliness […] they give us a sense of belonging […] [and] they shape our adult identities” (3). Hannah’s own experience establishes the truth of the first two in her mind, as she has chosen not to pledge a sorority but instead cherishes the foursome she has with Tyson, Lainey, and Summer. The matter of early friendships shaping one adult’s identity is more complex, but all three of the protagonists show how their friendship with Summer—and losing Summer—has impacted them. Summer’s death is the catalyst for the Summer Pact, in which each of the three surviving friends has agreed to make their loyalty to and support of the others a priority in their lives, to the point that they are willing to honor that friendship over job commitments, other interests, and other, even romantic relationships.
The novel explores the impact of this college friendship on the adult lives of the protagonists as they are all called to fulfill the Summer Pact. The power of friendship lies in this pledge of unconditional support that is illustrated through Lainey and Tyson flying to Atlanta to provide emotional support for Hannah after she discovers Grady’s infidelity. The honesty with which the friends challenge one another throughout the novel illustrates how the early foundations of their friendships create a supportive and nurturing environment, allowing each character to grow in self-awareness and self-control. Tyson demonstrates this when he reminds Lainey that she can have what she wants as long as she is clear about what that is.
Another of the elements that helps friendship endure, according to the argument of the novel, is forgiveness. This aspect of the friends’ connection manifests in several ways. Hannah and Lainey understand why Tyson didn’t tell them about his growing feelings for Summer. Lainey forgives Hannah for pursuing a relationship with Olivia, and both Hannah and Tyson forgive Lainey for putting herself in danger and causing all of them turmoil. The novel illustrates that emotional support, honesty, and forgiveness are the foundations of the friendship that proves so valuable in helping each character grow and mature.
The Summer Pact establishes friendship as the most important relationship that adults can have—the equivalent of, the basis of, or, in some cases, superior to other intimate relationships. Although they disagree and argue sometimes, in the end, the friends support and understand one another unconditionally, making their relationship even stronger. Hannah’s romantic relationship with Olivia begins as a friendship but is strengthened when Lainey and Tyson accept Olivia, turning the group once more into a foursome. In addition, Tyson and Lainey’s romance evolves from a friendship, suggesting that this sound basis promises a happy and fulfilling marriage. Hannah’s initial theory that coming-of-age friendships are powerful because they “bear[] witness to our loss of innocence” is highlighted in the closing scene when Hannah and Tyson visit Lainey in the hospital (3). Her recognition that their bond has helped each of them survive and grow underscores the novel’s message about the importance of long-standing friendship to each of their lives.
Managing Difficult Family Dynamics
Although the main focus of The Summer Pact is the bond between friends, Giffin also contrasts those relationships with the protagonists’ birth families, the dynamics of which are much more fraught and difficult. The family structures of the four college friends are distinct, and through them, the novel explores which kinds of family bonds are nurturing and which dynamics pose challenges that the protagonists need to overcome.
Though the MacFarlands appear only briefly, Summer appears to have a warm and stable family. Like Summer, her older brother is also an athlete, acting as both a model and support for her. At the end of the story, he is the one organizing a tribute team in Summer’s honor to run in the Chicago Marathon. Summer’s parents visit the university after her death, and Hannah and Tyson find them bereft over losing their daughter. Summer’s death shocks them, as they appear not to have known about or contributed to the pressure she was under. The supportive and nurturing nature of Summer’s family contrasts with those of her friends, who face more challenging family dynamics.
Tyson’s relationship with his parents is one of mutual respect and esteem, and he acknowledges that his parents love and care for him; however, their love goes hand in hand with high expectations. Tyson’s father suggests that, in his choice of career, he owes a debt to his parents and grandparents, who were highly educated and achieved the pinnacle of success in their careers. At the beginning of the novel, Tyson has acceded to his parents’ wishes by becoming a prominent lawyer. His decision to leave his job and his desire to determine and pursue his own wishes—what his father calls “finding himself”—appear misguided at worst and a type of leisure at best. However, while Tyson’s parents might pose objections to his career change to teaching, in choosing that path, he shows that he has indeed found what he wants to do, and unlike his parents, his found family of friends fully supports his decision.
Like Tyson, Hannah’s family dynamics have placed a significant burden on her happiness and constrained many of her life choices. Hannah finds herself trying to please her family, particularly her mother, by making choices of which her mother approves, holding herself to her mother’s personal and professional standards. However, letting her mother determine her life’s path—most notably, in her mother’s efforts to reunite Hannah with Grady despite his infidelity—leads Hannah to misery. Her trip abroad with friends gives her relief from her mother’s demands while reinforcing her confidence in her decision-making abilities. By the Epilogue, Hannah has developed a healthy distance from her mother, both physically and figuratively, by moving several states away and keeping her new romantic relationship a secret from her mother. With her friends’ help, Hannah has found the strength and confidence to no longer let her mother dictate her life.
Although both Tyson and Hannah face family challenges, Lainey has the most fraught family dynamics of the three, exacerbated by her mother’s recent death. Her and her mother’s existences are a secret from her half-sisters and her father’s wife, and Lainey fears their rejection should the connection ever be exposed. While her mother’s death is a source of pain for Lainey, her father’s lies increase that pain, and the rejection she imagines from her half-sisters leads her to confront Ashley in a way that is bound to cause dissension. However, Olivia, who finds it difficult to relate to or feel accepted by her mother and sister, has found peace of mind by establishing distance from her family. Her position as an outsider in her own family is like Lainey’s own, and their eventual connection illustrates how family dynamics can be repaired and reshaped, creating a new definition of found family.
The Summer Pact shows that the most effective way to manage difficult family dynamics is to establish boundaries—and, when necessary, a healthy geographical distance. As Hannah, Tyson, Lainey, and Olivia all prove, one can love and even respect a family member but still require distance from their needs and expectations. In contrast, as the close bonds among the protagonists show, friends and intimate partners can provide nurturing bonds that operate as a kind of family, providing support and offering a platform for personal growth.
Self-Awareness as an Aspect of Resilience
The three protagonists in The Summer Pact all move toward greater maturity over the course of the novel, developing self-awareness and self-realization through both the support of friends and the choices they make in response to challenges and obstacles. These moves toward self-awareness aid the characters in overcoming further obstacles, suggesting that their growing maturity builds in them a resilience that helps them resolve difficulties and move toward happy outcomes.
As the novel begins, Hannah is devastated by her fiancé Grady’s infidelity; however, as she processes the situation, it becomes clear that her upset over Grady’s betrayal is mostly about her attachment to an ideal she created about her life plan and marital situation. When challenged by Lainey, she insists that she loves Grady, but as time passes and she gains distance from the situation, Hannah realizes that Grady wasn’t a good companion. She still longs for love and family—and fears ending up alone—but, as she discovers when she meets Olivia, she benefits from focusing on the person instead of on the shape of the relationship. While Hannah never initially imagined that she would feel attracted to a woman, by the end of the book, she is imagining a future with Olivia that involves the children they both want. This new awareness helps Hannah overcome the pain of rejection and failure and embrace a new path toward the happiness she desires. Hannah demonstrates her resilience through her ability to pivot away from her former dreams and her willingness to pursue a future she never imagined.
Tyson demonstrates self-awareness from the beginning of the novel, but in his case, he realizes that he has been focusing on things he doesn’t want rather than defining what he does. His progression toward self-awareness involves discovering what he wants out of a partner—vulnerability and honesty, as well as attraction—and what he wants from a career. His ability to finally be honest with himself and his friends about his relationship with Summer allows him to gain a perspective on that relationship, resolving the guilt and the sense of failure that troubled him. Like Hannah, by the end of the novel, Tyson shows his increased resilience through his commitment to a relationship he never imagined, as well as a return to his dream of being a high school teacher. Tyson’s increased self-awareness involves being able to recognize something new in Lainey, whom he’s known for a long time, and his recognition that his original dream of being a teacher is still valid.
Lainey’s journey toward self-awareness and resilience comes at the greatest cost, as she nearly loses her life and loses a desirable movie role after her episode of alcohol poisoning. Tyson suggests that Lainey’s alcohol misuse can be attributed to avoidance and that confronting what troubles her will improve both her self-awareness and the coping strategies that aid resilience. By the end of the novel, Lainey’s time in a rehabilitation facility gives her the space to develop her self-awareness and reconsider her approach toward a difficult family situation. Her newfound resilience is illustrated through her nine months of sobriety and newly developing relationship with her half-sister Olivia. The happiness and fulfillment that the characters achieve at the end of the novel are the result of their ongoing journeys of self-awareness, as their newfound resilience allows them to identify and pursue the lives they want.
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