63 pages • 2 hours read
Jenny HanIt's Not Summer Without You
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2010A 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
The Infinity-Symbol Necklace
The infinity-symbol necklace crops up several times throughout the text as a talisman for Belly. Finding the necklace tucked away in his college dorm gives her the tangible evidence of Conrad’s feelings that she’s been searching for: “It was for me. He’d bought it for me. Here was my proof. Proof that he really did care” (97). She wears it secretly and often touches it to remind herself of this proof. Her desperation for such a sign allows her to overlook the fact that Conrad did not give her the necklace before they broke up.
It is not until the end of the book that Conrad allows himself to even imply the necklace is in fact a symbol; Belly herself doesn’t explicitly explain its meaning until Conrad, angry at finding her locked in an embrace with Jeremiah, confronts her about the necklace: “‘You know what it means.’ I shook my head. ‘I don’t.’ But of course I did. I remembered when he’d explained the concept of infinity to me. Immeasurable, one moment stretching out to the next. He bought me that necklace. He knew what it meant” (263).
While Conrad never states what the necklace means, Belly understands its implication: that his feelings for Belly are boundless, ongoing, and unending. It’s also a reminder of the very real connection they have forged outside of her fantasy, which solidified during the school year when Conrad spent countless hours on the phone with Belly, helping her pass trigonometry. Recalling their tutoring sessions, Belly reflects, “Conrad had a way of making impossible things make sense, and I never loved him more than during those nights he spent with me on the phone, going over the same problems over and over, until finally, I understood too” (98).
Her epiphany that he cannot be emotionally present for her in the way that she needs follows a similar trajectory: a problem she must mull over from multiple angles before the answer becomes clear. This culminates in her realization: “The intent behind it wasn’t enough. Not for me. Not anymore” (263). Despite her love for Conrad, Belly has learned that implications and symbolism are no longer enough for her and decides to let Conrad go. Thus, the necklace comes to symbolize her decision to put herself before her fantasy of their relationship; when she reflects, “I can’t even explain it. All I knew was [...] It felt like it belonged to me” (100), she is closer to the truth than she knows.
The Cousins Beach House
The Cousins Beach house is an important physical setting, but in the wake of Susannah Fisher’s death, the house takes on symbolic significance. In Susannah’s absence, the Cousins Beach house becomes the one place where those who love and mourn her can feel connected to her. Belly feels this sense upon arriving back at the house: “It was strange; the house still smelled the same. For some reason, I hadn’t been expecting that. Maybe with Susannah gone, I’d thought it would all feel different. But it didn’t” (116). Upon returning to the house for the first time since Susannah’s death, Belly feels how much her presence remains imprinted on the house and how important it is to be there in order to feel connected to her.
As comforting as Susannah’s presence in the house is, it is also painful, because Belly has to confront the fact that Susannah is really gone:
Not thinking about Susannah, consciously not thinking about her, made it easier. Because then she wasn’t really gone. She was just off someplace else. That was what I’d been doing since she died. Not thinking about her. It was easier to do at home. But here, at the summer house, she was everywhere (137).
At Cousins, Susannah’s favorite place, her family and friends have to reckon with the reality that she is gone.
Because the house is all that remains of Susannah, her sons and Belly feel an acute attachment to it. The house is important enough that Conrad is willing to risk losing his place at college to save it. Here, they can feel close to Susannah through their memories and the reminders of her in a way they cannot anywhere else in the world. This makes Mr. Fisher’s desire to sell the house (precisely because he is overwhelmed by the feeling that “She’s everywhere here. She’s everywhere” [232]) all the more painful. Laurel convinces Mr. Fisher to save the house because Susannah’s memory and presence remain there: “This house is pure Beck. It’s always been Beck. This was her favorite place. That’s why the boys should have it” (231). Laurel thus preserves Susannah’s memory for those she left behind.
When Belly, Jeremiah, and Conrad leave Cousins to take Conrad back to school, Belly reflects on how its meaning has evolved for her: “I loved that house, and I hated to say good-bye. Because, it was more than just a house. It was every summer, every boat ride, every sunset. It was Susannah” (254). Belly has spent every summer of her life there, she fell in love there, and it is her favorite place in the world. But, as the quote states, it is now even more than a house to her: It is all that remains of Susannah, the vessel that holds her memory and helps those who mourn her feel close to her.
The book indicates that the house’s significance will continue to evolve for Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah as they grow. The fact that Mr. Fisher explicitly gives it to his sons opens a new chapter for them, one in which they will have to mature enough to become stewards of the house’s future and to forge their own new memories there.
The Love Triangle Between Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah
Belly has always loved Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher. In It’s Not Summer Without You, a motif emerges as Belly’s feelings for each brother evolve, resulting in a complicated love triangle. Their complicated dynamic reflects Belly’s growth as she ultimately decides to walk away from the relationship that causes her anxiety and insecurity.
At the beginning of the text, Belly and Conrad have broken up. On a clandestine trip to Cousins Beach the December before their breakup, Belly whispers to Conrad while he sleeps: “Conrad. There’s only you. For me, there’s only ever been you” (108). Despite their breakup and her anger at him, Belly remains hopelessly in love with Conrad, still hoping that they will end up together despite where things stand between them. This is part of her agreement to join Jeremiah on his mission to find Conrad and bring him back to school—so that she can apologize to Conrad and hopefully mend their relationship.
While Belly continues to nurse her lifelong love for Conrad, Jeremiah finds his own feelings for Belly deepening. For him, always playing second fiddle to Conrad, these feelings often find an outlet in jealousy, as when he recounts:
My gut just twisted. I felt like somebody had drop-kicked me in the stomach. I was jealous, crazy jealous. Of Conrad. And when she got up a little while later to get a soda, I watched him watch her walk away and I felt sick inside. That was when I knew things would never be the same (59).
From this moment on, Jeremiah harbors his own crush on Belly but struggles with this unrequited love, knowing that she only has eyes for his brother.
When Jeremiah tries to confront Conrad about his feelings for Belly, Conrad’s claim he has no feelings for her angers Jeremiah, who knows Conrad is lying: “Conrad would never be [...] the kind of guy Belly needed, someone who would be there for her, someone she could count on [...] But maybe now that Conrad wasn’t standing in the way, she’d see me there too” (208). Jeremiah begins to see that he may have a chance with Belly if only he can show her that he could be the kind of partner she needs.
Jeremiah is in fact able to show Belly that he can offer the stability and respect she learns she needs from a relationship. As painful as it is, Belly then decides to let Conrad go, knowing that if she does not end this chapter of her life now “[she] never will” (273). This illustrates Belly’s growth as a person: She now seeks a more secure and affirming love, even as it changes the dynamic of their triangle forever.
This opens Belly up to explore her feelings for Jeremiah, which have steadily increased throughout the text as she gains perspective on his moral character. At the end of the book, Belly lets go of Conrad and instead holds on to Jeremiah’s hand on their drive home: “It felt like the most right thing I’d done in a long time [...] We held hands like that the whole rest of the way home” (275). By choosing Jeremiah, Belly seems to resolve the love triangle, choosing the brother whose love Belly never has to question.
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