The Things We Do For Love

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of pregnancy loss, child death, emotional abuse, physical abuse, gender discrimination, substance use, and sexual content.

“Though she and her sisters had chosen different lives and tended to meddle too often in one another’s choices, they were like strands of a single rope. When they came together, they were unbreakable. She needed to be part of that again; she’d been grieving alone for too long.”

When Angie arrives in West End and sees her sisters in the kitchen, she thinks of their bond. Using a simile, she compares their relationship to the “strands of a single rope,” suggesting that they belong together and need one another. This reminds Angie that she does not have to bear her losses alone and that she can lean on her family, laying the groundwork for exploration of The Transformative Power of Love.

“Believe me, family is overrated. Oh, they’re fine till you screw up, but then, wham!, they break your heart. Don’t you count on people, Lauren.”

After going to the college fair by herself, Lauren finds her mother drunk in their apartment. When the girl outlines her plans to get a college scholarship, her mother claims that she had the same plan but that pregnancy ruined her life—a dark example of the novel’s interest in The Quest for Maternal Fulfillment. The woman’s words are ironic, as Lauren already knows that she cannot count on her mother. Furthermore, Lauren will learn that people who truly love her will stick by her even in the most difficult moments.

“Lauren felt acutely out of place as she walked up to the guardhouse at the entrance gate, a girl who didn’t belong. She imagined that a notation was made on some chart that would be presented to Mr. and Mrs. Haynes on their return: Bad Element Visits Home.”

Lauren feels like an outcast when she visits David’s neighborhood, a community that contrasts in every way with her own. The association of poverty with “badness” signifies a biased, classist