Beautiful Disaster

The Maddox house reflects The Influence of Family and Background. This setting, with its shabby furniture, outdated décor, and old family photos, shows how the Maddox men, led by Travis’s father, are trapped in and nostalgic for an idealized past full of love when Mrs. Maddox was alive. Mr. Maddox suggests that Travis’s opening his heart to Abby places an obligation on her to love and care for him, as a mother would. This may strike some readers as an inappropriate responsibility for a parent to place on a 19-year-old girl in her first relationship, which further emphasizes the effects of grief on Mr. Maddox’s perspective, as well as the novel’s depiction of traditional, conservative gender roles in heterosexual relationships. Abby herself shares the belief that she is responsible for Travis’s feelings, observing that Travis’s bedroom, once a blank and expressionless space, is now filled with items and pictures evoking the two of them.

Abby finds reasons to reject the choices she believes she “should” make in order to get what she truly wants. She’s still learning to confidently stand behind her own desires as an autonomous adult without need for justification. Abby follows through on her earlier bet with Travis by telling herself she must keep her word to him. She uses the same reasoning to spend Thanksgiving at the Maddox house to be near Travis.

Spending time in the kitchen cooking the Thanksgiving meal, a very domestic situation, gives both Abby and Travis a vision of a future together—one they both want. For Travis, this closeness represents what was denied him when his mother died: a nurturing woman in his life. Abby, who grew up in her father’s chaotic world, longs for the stability of this archetypal domestic partnership as well. She enjoyed the previous taste of it at Travis’s apartment when he cooked her dinner and they ate with their dog. The snow the next morning indicates the possibility of a fresh start, and Travis and Abby react in opposite ways to that possibility—Abby finally acknowledges her true desires to herself and embraces the idea of a future with Travis. Travis gives in to insecurity, deciding he’s incapable of being a true partner to Abby, and breaks off their relationship—a choice that can be read as his own attempt to regain control over the relationship.

Abby’s return to Parker after Travis’s rejection in hopes that she might finally be able to choose the “good” guy makes it clear that she’s still pursuing her desire for romantic partnership, by reverting to her previous ideas of who she “should” be and what she “should” want. Abby even wears the bracelet Parker gave her as if trying on a new identity the way she wore a cashmere sweater and pearls at the start of the novel. However, the reversion is short-lived because Abby has come far enough in her arc to realize that her ideal of a “good” girl feels hollow and unimportant up against the things—and the person—she now knows she wants.

Both Abby and Travis ultimately find pleasure and a sense of belonging in asserting control over and seceding control to the other in their relationship, which the novel posits as a healthy equilibrium in a passionate and tumultuous relationship. True love, the novel suggests, transforms a multitude of behaviors that would otherwise be problematic or abusive. Travis physically carrying Abby out of the frat house to his apartment forces her compliance on his terms. His abduction, initially against her consent, demonstrates the novel’s consistent position that from Travis toward Abby, intensity equals devotion. Having been “tamed” by Abby, Travis simultaneously wants to stake his claim on her as his own, signaling it to others through his public demonstrations of dominance and possessiveness, and demanding that Abby admit she “belongs” only to him. For Abby’s part, after objecting through much of the book to being treated like a possession, her quick capitulation to being dominated in this way demonstrates her equal pleasure in both asserting and submitting to control within the context of their relationship. Acknowledging that pleasure allows Abby to finally confront her true motivations and desires, telling Travis that she feels she has “belonged” to him from the beginning. However, it also could be read as another place in the book where Abby puts aside her autonomy and desires in order to please Travis and mitigate his otherwise volatile temperament in a public situation.

After this, Abby continues to take pleasure in Travis’s behavior toward her, even though it seems to further suppress her autonomy, having accepted it as a sign of devotion. She enjoys when he carries her across the icy campus and takes pride in her protected status as his girlfriend. She allows him to arrange her meals and decide what she will eat. She does not protest when Travis, concerned about being able to focus on his fight, calls in his brother as a stand-in, another protective Maddox male, to guard Abby. Rather than viewing these behaviors as controlling or setting limits on her autonomy, Abby sees Travis’s behavior as nurturing and protective.

For Abby, facing and then embracing the truth of her sometimes conflicting desires unlocks the confidence and self-contentment she’s been moving toward throughout the novel. The feeling of safety and shelter she experiences in Travis’s arms after they escape the burning building is the final signal to Abby that she belongs with him, cementing The Power of Physical Attraction. Whereas she resented her father’s attempts to make her responsible for his behavior and circumstances, naming her “Lucky Thirteen,” Abby embraces her ability to bring Travis peace and accepts the peace he brings her. Their dynamic, which she found dysfunctional prior to coming into her own is now completely acceptable to Abby. More powerful than the intensity of the physical attraction she feels—too powerful to be denied—is the confidence gained by unreservedly embracing what she wants unencumbered by what she believes she “should” be doing.

The Power of Physical Attraction, as well as the sense that the bonded couple is an entity apart from and set against the rest of the world, is a foundational feature of romance narratives. This relationship-centered, us-against-the-world viewpoint is compounded by the first-person point of view. Being privy to Abby’s uncensored thoughts and feelings gives the reader a clear picture of the myopia often created by an all-encompassing us-against-the-world dynamic in which the lovers are so enamored with each other that they’re unable to see anything else. This dynamic also allows the lovers to become a world unto themselves—a world with its own set of rules, able to recast potentially abusive or unhealthy behaviors as loving. More than being dismissive of people who are not of substantial support or value to her, like Abby’s roommate, Kara, or the “random sorority bitch” (359) she believes is scolding her at a party, Abby demonstrates a lack of concern for the deaths that result from the fire in the building where Travis has his fight. Her and Travis’s only concern is for Trent, Travis’s brother. Neither express an awareness of or sense of responsibility for the students who were there. Rather, Abby focuses on her own sense of sanctity—she was spared by the power of Travis’s love.

This myopia is further demonstrated when Abby proposes eloping to Vegas and doesn’t include their friends in their plans, even though America expected to be part of Abby’s wedding. Again, while nothing has materially changed about Travis’s behavior or attitude, with which she previously took issue, Abby concedes to the power of attraction and subscribes to the two of them as a new and unique unit. She settles the question of her conflicting identities by choosing a new identity as Mrs. Maddox. The marriage and the tattoo represent the happy-ever-after ending typical of the romance genre, with its attendant belief that romantic love, especially a passion too powerful to deny, promises a harmonious future by paving over, or making worthwhile, all other ills.