65 pages • 2 hours read
Jenny HanWe'll Always Have Summer
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2011A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Wedding Planning
Due to Jeremiah’s work schedule, Belly must do most of their wedding planning on her own. As Conrad steps in to help, he and Belly grow closer. Wedding planning is a motif through which Belly and Conrad bond and rekindle their feelings for one another, while Jeremiah and Belly’s diverging visions for their wedding day indicate that their relationship will ultimately fail.
At one point, Conrad and Belly visit a local florist, who mistakes Conrad for Belly’s groom: “‘Are you and your groomsmen doing boutonnieres?’ He turns red. ‘I’m not the groom,’ he said” (192). This is a significant moment because Conrad is the one that is there with Belly, picking out flowers for her wedding, not the man she is set to marry. Their time together leads to Belly and Conrad excavating their long-buried feelings for one another.
On the way home from the florist, Conrad senses that Belly wants to stop at a local fruit stand, and they share a tender moment: “Conrad reached out and wiped my chin with his shirt. It was maybe the most intimate thing anyone had ever done to me. [...] It was in the way he looked at me, just those few seconds” (194). Belly’s reaction to Conrad’s touch and Conrad’s meaningful glance at Belly illustrates the romantic tension between the two, which causes Belly to question herself: “One touch from him, and I was shaking. It was madness. I was marrying his brother” (194). Although her interactions with Conrad confuse Belly, the time she spends with Jeremiah discussing their future raises even more doubts and concerns.
As Jeremiah and Belly get closer to the wedding, their increasingly divergent visions for their wedding day belie the inherent mismatch in their relationship. Jeremiah takes an immature approach to what should be a solemn occasion: “Hey, can we dance to ‘You Never Can Tell’ at the reception? [...] We can put it on YouTube. I bet we’ll get a shit ton of hits” (172). Belly is upset that Jeremiah wants to use their wedding as a content-creation opportunity, and the two argue. Jeremiah’s vision for their future seems more aligned with his college life than marriage. Jeremiah’s desire to hold onto his fraternity-brother lifestyle while marrying Belly implies Jeremiah is too immature to enter a union as serious and life-changing as marriage, pushing him and Belly further apart.
The Beach
Cousins Beach has played an important role in Belly and Conrad’s relationship since the first book in the Summer trilogy. The beach is where Conrad and Belly have their most intimate and vulnerable conversations, from their first kiss in book one to their fight in We’ll Always Have Summer, during which Conrad confesses his love for Belly for the first time. The beach symbolizes Belly and Conrad’s relationship: The ebb and flow of the tide mirrors their feelings for one another.
Conrad has always struggled to express his true feelings to Belly but seems to let his guard down most when they are at the beach. In the first book in the trilogy, Belly and Conrad kiss for the first time at the ocean. In We’ll Always Have Summer, Belly finds Conrad on the beach after Jeremiah’s bachelor party, and they fight after Conrad finds out that Belly is still marrying Jeremiah even after he cheated on her. This prompts Conrad to confess his true feelings for Belly: “I still love you. [...] I don’t know if I’ll ever get you out of my system, not completely. I have…this feeling. That you’ll always be there” (236). Conrad explains that he broke up with her previously because of the emotional trauma he sustained in losing his mother. This admission could have never happened at another location, precisely because the beach is where Conrad and Belly feel most themselves and most at peace.
Belly and Conrad return to the beach again at their wedding a few years later. They rush toward the water, “tripping in the sand, screaming and laughing like little kids” (291), evoking the innumerable times that they have done so throughout their shared childhood. Now they approach the water as a unit: “He picks me up like he is carrying me across a threshold. [...] We are married. We are infinite. Me and Conrad” (291). Conrad jumps into the water, Belly in his arms, a symbol that Conrad is no longer afraid of or eager to run away from his feelings for her. He dives in with both feet, showing Belly that he is with her and they are bound to one another. Belly will never have to jump into the unknown by herself again with Conrad by her side.
Susannah’s Letters
Before her death, Susannah wrote letters to Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah, to be read on their wedding days. While these letters do not entirely predict the future, the role they play in the text and the contents of these letters illustrate how much Belly and Conrad love one another and foreshadow their eventual union.
When Conrad finds Jeremiah, who has run away on the day of his wedding, Conrad gives Jeremiah the letter from his mother. Jeremiah reads it and begins to cry, informing him that it is Conrad’s letter, not his. When Jeremiah goes back to the house, and he and Belly confront one another, Jeremiah reveals what in the letter made him so upset: “My mom must have mixed up the envelopes. In the letter she said—she said she only ever got to see him in love once. That was with you” (285). The fact that Susannah evokes Belly’s name and Conrad’s love for her in his letter suggests an understanding of their deep connection, which endures to the present day. Jeremiah and Belly ultimately decide to end their engagement, largely because Belly admits that a part of her will always love Conrad. It is also significant that on the day of her wedding, Laurel gives Belly her letter, but Belly does not read it, another sign that she and Jeremiah were not meant to be wed. She does not read it until her wedding day a few years later.
Susannah’s letter to Belly opens the Epilogue and reads in part: “I picture you marrying a man who is solid and steady and strong, a man with kind eyes. I am sure your young man is completely wonderful, even if he doesn’t have the last name Fisher!” (288). Again, Susannah refers to her long-held hope and belief that Belly would one day marry one of her sons, specifically Conrad.
Belly explains that Susannah’s letter was wrong in that Belly is younger than Susannah’s letter suggests, but she did get several things right: “My young man is kind and good and strong, just like you said. [...] And there’s one other thing you were right about. He does have the last name Fisher” (289). By alluding to Belly and Conrad’s love for one another in each of their letters, Susannah’s letters to them on their wedding days symbolize that Conrad and Belly’s marriage was meant to be.
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