85 pages • 2 hours read
Jennifer Lynn BarnesThe Hawthorne Legacy
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
Coming-of-Age: Becoming a Player in your Own Game
A central theme in The Hawthorne Legacy is coming-of-age, a common trope in YA literature. Avery best epitomizes this theme as the reader witnesses the character’s transition from a pawn used by the Hawthornes to a self-governing agent—a player in the game. Avery’s worry that she’s treated as a mere object by the Hawthornes begins in The Inheritance Games, when it seems that billionaire philanthropist Tobias has left his fortune to Avery with the sole purpose of manipulating his family. Nash warns her as much when he likens her to the glass ballerina that Tobias would provide his grandsons as a clue in solving riddles. In The Hawthorne Legacy, Avery fights back at this objectification, telling Grayson, “I’m not the glass ballerina” (167).
Avery progressively asserts herself as an adult with control over her own life. In the final chapters, her independent state of mind becomes clear—for example, when she looks at a portrait of Tobias and thinks, “I was done being used” (342). She recognizes her growth, telling herself, “I’m starting to realize that the person I need to be, the person I’m becoming—she’s not that girl anymore” (349). The ultimate symbol of Avery’s coming-of-age is seen in her legal emancipation, which establishes her, legally, as an adult in charge of her own decisions. At the beginning of The Hawthorne Legacy, the emancipation process is just starting. In the final chapter, Avery goes to the court hearing, where she is legally emancipated. It’s a landmark moment speaking to the emotional maturity and mental growth Avery has gone through in the books. Her emancipation punctuates a series of events that have led to Avery’s maturity and self-discovery:
In the past six weeks, I’d been shot at, blown up, kidnapped, and paraded around as the living, breathing embodiment of Cinderella stories. To the world, I was a scandal, a mystery, a curiosity, a fantasy. To Tobias Hawthorne, I’d been a tool. (350)
When Alisa congratulates her after the judge grants her emancipation, saying, “You can write your own will” (350), Avery’s response mirrors the confidence and determination she has gained during her coming-of-age journey: “I can do a lot more than that” (350).
Avery is not the only character to embody the coming-of-age theme in The Hawthorne Legacy. Other characters, like Nash and Grayson, also hint at the theme. Both brothers are forced to confront the realities of their biological fathers. Understanding where we came from can be a pivotal step in forming self-identity and confidently moving forward into the future. Avery likewise grapples with her roots as she tries to figure out whether Toby/Harry or Ricky is her biological father.
Romantic Relationships
Romance is a common theme in coming-of-age stories, and The Hawthorne Legacy adheres to this literary model. The primary romantic subplot in the book is the attraction between Avery and Jameson. As Avery’s primary love interest, Jameson is closely intertwined with her journey to self-actualizing adulthood. At the beginning of the book, it seems that Jameson continues to view Avery as an object: “[Jameson] started looking at me like I was a mystery again, a puzzle that he, and only he, could solve” (2). By the end of the book, Jameson’s view of Avery has shifted, as he tells her: 23. “You aren’t a prize to be won. […] You’re not a puzzle or a riddle or a clue” (314).
It’s only after Avery completes her journey to adulthood—and once Jameson recognizes her as an independent person, not an object—that the two of them can whole-heartedly pursue their romance. After Jameson expresses that Avery isn’t a “puzzle or a riddle or a clue,” Jameson and Avery resolve to solve the mystery of Toby/Harry together, as a team. However, ultimately, the narrative will leave Avery to solve the mystery alone: Jameson is not present when Avery is kidnapped, nor does he help her in any way. This suggests an authorial choice, leaving Avery to fight her own battle instead of leaving her waiting for the metaphorical “knight in shining armor” to sweep in and save her—something that would undermine her newly developed identity as an independent adult.
Avery and Jameson are not the only romantic subplots in the book. First, there is the hint of sexual tension between Avery and Grayson, which adds narrative tension—especially when they cross the line physically: “Before I could get the word daughter out, Grayson leaned his head down and crushed his lips to mine. He kissed me to save me from what I’d been about to say” (246). There is also the hint that Libby and Nash have a romantic connection and the rekindling of the romantic relationship between Rebecca and Thea—evidenced when Avery comes across the two girls kissing at True North. The author's inclusion of a same-sex romance speaks to the increasingly inclusive nature of YA and literature at large. Finally, there is the deep love shown between Toby/Harry and Hannah/Sarah in the postcards that Avery discovers, a realization that changes her understanding of her mother and adds to her belief that Toby/Harry is her father: “The only other thing that was clear was that they were in love. Epic, incomplete-without-the-other, once-in-a-lifetime love” (269).
Class Disparities and Classism
Avery may have inherited a fortune, but she didn’t grow up with money and privilege as the Hawthorne brothers did, and the book reminds the reader (and Avery) of this again and again. For example, when Avery goes to the football game of a team she now owns, Avery notes her discomfort in the VIP owner’s box, but she realizes that she has to play the part: “This was a Cinderella story, and I was the star” (13). While the Cinderella identity may be a great way to sell Avery’s story to the media, it’s a constant reminder to Avery of where she came from; it marks her as “other” and as inherently “beneath” the Hawthornes. Not coming from a wealthy background, Avery struggles not to be overwhelmed by the rich and famous who are now in her circle and having to be aware of her every action and word is stressful. Rather than feeling comfortable and at ease—as she would have if she had grown up wealthy like the Hawthornes—she feels scrutinized and self-conscious.
Avery’s class discomfort is also seen in practical instances in her interactions with the Hawthornes and her everyday life as a new billionaire. For example, when they fly to True North on one of Avery’s planes, she thinks, “A month ago, I’d never been on a plane. Now I was flying private” (154). The Hawthornes also know about certain “classy” hobbies that Avery lacks—for example, she doesn’t know how to ski or swordfight. Avery’s disadvantaged upbringing is seen yet again when the Hawthorne boys communicate with one another in front of her using Latin, a language she doesn’t understand.
Finally, the narrative also criticizes the dangers of class distinctions in portraying Kaylie Rooney, who is Avery’s aunt. News reports cast Kaylie as a troubled teen with a sealed criminal record that involves drugs, assault, and arson. However, Avery cannot be sure these accounts are accurate or reputable; even if they are, such crimes are not exclusive to the non-wealthy in society. Regarding the Hawthorne Island fire, Avery notes: “I thought about the news coverage of the fire. The suggestion that there had been a wild party that had spun out of control. The way that the tragedy had been blamed, again and again, on Kaylie Rooney, when the three upstanding young men had been partying straight out of rehab” (119). Avery is keenly aware of the fact that, by simply coming from a poorer and “less respected” family, Kaylie is the easy scapegoat for the incident.
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