Same As It Ever Was: A Novel

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-12

Part 1, Chapters 13-24

Part 2

Part 3

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Music

The backdrop and key motif of Same as It Ever Was is the music it references throughout. The novel uses this motif to express various aspects of two key themes: Transformation of Parent-Child Relationships Over Time and Personal Identity and Motherhood. Much of the music the novel references is pop and indie rock bands popular with Gen X and expresses disillusionment about typical Midwestern middle-class suburban life. The text establishes this motif in the title of the book itself: “Same as it ever was” is a lyric from the 1981 classic “Once in a Lifetime” by Talking Heads. This song expresses shock, alienation, disillusionment, and confusion about ending up in a typical life with a “beautiful house” and a “beautiful wife,” asking “How did I get here?” and thus symbolically mirroring Julia’s feelings about her own life.

Julia uses music to express her personal identity in the context of her life as a mother. It anchors her to her life pre-motherhood life, when she listened to this music regularly and went to see the bands play live. When Ben was young, she played this music in the car, and they sang along with it together. Likewise, one of her few happy memories of her childhood reflects her love of music: dancing with her mother in the kitchen.

In addition, the music marks Julia’s changing relationships with her children. For instance, when she and Mark were first dating, they went to see the band Jesus and Mary Chain at the Aragon. She bought a shirt at that show. Ben cried into the shirt when he was three and didn’t want to go to preschool, and Alma later stole the shirt. Years later, when Alma returns home after losing her job as an adult, she’s once again wearing the shirt. This shows how music and its artifacts serve different roles in Julia’s relationships with her children as they mature and grow.

Flowers

A motif that appears throughout the novel, flowers are a marker of the theme of Personal Identity and Motherhood. As noted elsewhere, this motif is partly a reference to the flowers in Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. Helen first meets Julia at the botanical garden when she’s “crying a little bit, right in the middle of the herbaceous perennials” (37). This setting provides a point of contrast between Helen and Julia since Julia sees Helen as the ultimate expression of a woman who successfully balances her personal identity and her role as a mother. Further highlighting this contrast between them, at Helen’s house Julia sees “a garden so verdant that Julia felt embarrassed about ever having had hope for her own tulips” (61). Julia’s own metaphorical failing flowers, or sense of insufficiency as a young mother, signify her sense of hopelessness in retaining her personal identity within the realm of motherhood.

As a woman in her fifties, Julia shows that she has learned to integrate these aspects of her life through taking on the responsibility of buying flowers for her son’s wedding. She “has worked with the persnickety florist […] and she’s actually quite proud of them” (371). Her satisfaction with the flowers symbolizes her growth. In reconnecting with Helen, Julia brings her a bouquet of flowers. She’s symbolically thanking Helen for acting as a model. In a full-circle moment, Julia later volunteers at the botanical gardens herself.

Driving

As a suburban mom, Julia spends a lot of time in the car, driving her kids to various destinations. Driving represents the journey through life. Often in the driver’s seat, Julie strives to make trips special for her kids. For instance, when Ben is small, their favorite pastime is driving around singing to Julia’s favorite music. Additionally, the car is the scene of many of the life changes that occur in the novel, such as when, after dinner at Francine and Brady’s house, Mark and Julia’s conversation in the car leads to her agreeing to marry him. Similarly, when Julia is at her lowest, she cries in the car in the Whole Foods parking lot. In Nathaniel’s car on the way to the lake house, Julia realizes that she can’t leave her family. These crucial moments symbolize the joys and challenges a family unit faces throughout life.

As a teen, Alma asserts her independence by asking her mother to let her drive. Her newfound autonomy makes Julia anxious, yet after a significant moment with her daughter during Herzog College’s admitted students’ weekend, Julia lets Alma drive back to Chicago from Iowa. This shows Julia’s acceptance that she’s no longer in control of guiding Alma’s life now that Alma is about to leave home. Driving as a symbol of life’s journey becomes explicit in the novel’s final line when Julia remembers Ben as a child begging her, “Again Mama again, ha ha ha, and she’d tell him to wait, my sweetheart, you’ll have to wait, because she can’t control the placement of the hills along the road” (492). This metaphor reflects Julia’s love of her nurturing role as a mother, helping her children embrace and enjoy the bumps along the road even though those changes are out of her control.