72 pages • 2 hours read
Nina LaCourWe Are Okay
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2017A 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.
Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary
Mabel looks around at Hannah’s things to learn about her. She admires the colorful décor, the photographs of Hannah with friends, the quotes on her bulletin board, and the signed Broadway posters. Marin explains that Hannah is very kind, smart, and resilient. Mabel turns her attention to the only two personal things in Marin’s side of the room: a plant and two yellow ceramic bowls. Marin explains that she’s going to get more things soon, once she has a job. Mabel, newly concerned, realizes she doesn’t know if Marin has any money. Marin explains that her grandfather had already paid the first year’s tuition and had left her enough money to live on for a while if she’s careful.
Mabel asks Marin to come home with her and explains that her parents would like their home to be Marin’s home, too; she would continue to attend college in New York but would come home to California for breaks. Marin says she can’t and apologizes, but Mabel asks her to think about it for the next few days.
They go to the roof to look out over the campus and spot the groundskeeper, who waves at them. Marin confesses that she was afraid that the elevator would stop and trap her inside if she rode it earlier. When they go down in the elevator, Mabel presses the stop button between floors. Marin relents and agrees to sit in the elevator while it’s stopped. While they’re sitting, Mabel brings up Gramps and says that he was “cute” and that she misses him. Marin argues, saying that he wasn’t “cute” and that what Mabel is saying about him isn’t right or true. Mabel was trying to say that she misses him, and she knows Marin must miss him so much more. She wishes there had been a memorial. Marin thinks guiltily about the offers of help she received after his death and how she’d run away from them.
Mabel confronts her about the many calls and texts she sent that Marin ignored. Marin whispers, “I didn’t know what to say,” but Mabel pushes her on the issue with restrained anger (45). Marin tells her that there was more going on than Mabel knew about. Marin can’t bring herself to discuss it. They start the elevator again and head towards Marin’s room. Marin asks if Mabel remembers the day they met; Mabel had admired Marin’s manicure and asked if Marin could re-create it for her. The manicure had gone terribly, but they’d had a great time. Mabel says it actually started when Marin said something insightful in their Literature class, and Mabel had wanted to be friends with the smart girl.
Back in the dorm, they make Ramen noodles for dinner, and Mabel hesitantly tells Marin about her new boyfriend, Jacob. Marin asks what he knows, and Mabel gives her the basics, including that she’s told him things became “less clearly defined” between the two girls at the end (51). Mabel claims she’s tired and takes her phone with her to change, where she also calls and has a conversation with Jacob. Marin overhears her tell him that she loves him.
Chapter 5 Summary
This chapter returns to the month of May. Marin works on her Literature paper, copying down all the passages she can find about ghosts. She realizes that the ghosts don’t do much; rather, it’s the hauntings that matter. Their presence conveys something about the life of the haunted person.
Gramps comes home with the mail, including a letter from Birdie. Marin reflects on what kind of woman Birdie is—a proper, elegant old woman or a wild, devious grandmother. She thinks guiltily that Gramps would have gone to be with Birdie by now if he didn’t have to take care of Marin. Gramps shows Marin a beautiful dress that Birdie has sent him; Marin observes that it's a dress for a young woman, and Gramps says it’s an older dress of Birdie’s that she had when she was young. She asks why Gramps doesn’t talk about Birdie with his poker buddies, and he says he wouldn’t want to make them jealous.
A few days later, Marin is at Mabel’s while Mabel searches for a baby photo to give to the yearbook. Marin doesn’t have any baby pictures of her. Ana, Mabel’s artist mother, asks if she can draw Marin. She tells Marin that she believes Gramps must have something from when Marin was younger and that she should ask. She asks when she gets home, but Gramps responds stiffly. The next day, he says he tried but he couldn’t find one. Marin assures him that it’s fine, but she feels guilty for upsetting him.
Marin goes for a walk on the beach and runs into a surfer who knew her mother, Claire. They spot Gramps walking along the surf. Emily, the surfer, tells Marin a story about a time right after Claire’s death, when Gramps had come to the beach to surf. They’d all wanted to do something to honor his loss, so every other surfer had left the water and stood in a line to watch, giving him the ocean to himself. After he finished, he walked right by them without acknowledging their presence. She reminds Marin that the water is dangerous, even when you’re just walking.
Chapter 6 Summary
Mabel and Marin wait for the bus in the snow. Both girls are uncomfortable in the bitter cold. When the bus arrives, the driver tells them about an approaching storm. The bus passes through the snowy streets, and Marin takes notice of the many homes with wreathes, menorahs, and Christmas trees. She reflects on how Gramps celebrated Christmas; they would decorate, bake cookies, make eggnog, and listen to Christmas music while trimming the tree. Marin doubts the memory, asking herself if that’s really what Christmas was like. She thinks, “You thought you knew him” (65).
Marin wants to buy gifts for people and be more a part of the season. The potter’s studio where she bought her yellow bowls is open, so she takes Mabel into the shop. The store is warm and full of beautiful, handmade ceramics. Marin buys Hannah a set of green bowls and notices Mabel admiring large ceramic bells. Marin buys the bowls and a beautiful pink vase for Mabel’s parents, along with a pot to replant her peperomia in. When she checks out, she asks the potter if she’s hiring; the potter says that she wishes she could, but it’s too small of a shop for more than one person to work.
Marin and Mabel duck into a small café to eat. Mabel can’t believe that Marin lives somewhere this cold. Marin isn’t sure how to act; there was a time when she would have kissed Mabel, an earlier time when she would have sabotaged Mabel’s efforts to create patterns with the sugar packets, and a time yet earlier when she would have joined in the efforts. Mabel brings up the reason for her visit again. Marin says that she wants to say yes. Mabel points out that she can say yes, she just has to allow herself to say it. Mabel’s parents want to be parents to both of them and give Marin a home and a family to support her. Things get uncomfortable when Mabel says they could be like sisters.
While Mabel takes a phone call, Marin sneaks back to the pottery shop and buys one of the bells for Mabel. The potter says she’s been thinking, and she may actually be able to hire Marin part-time after the new year. Mabel fantasizes about feeling warm and capable and social while working at the store. She returns to the table before Mabel.
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
The reader’s understanding of Mabel and Marin’s relationship develops in these chapters. Though the two young women were clearly very close before Gramps’s death, Marin’s response to the death has created a deep rift between them. Mabel is worried about Marin’s well-being but still hurt and angry by her departure and silence. Mabel tries to communicate, but Marin struggles to share her feelings or the truth about her grandfather. These chapters reveal, too, that Marin and Mabel were romantically involved before Marin fled California without any personal items or clothing from home.
Marin’s loving, though complicated, relationship with her grandfather is increasingly unveiled. Marin loves her grandfather but also seems reluctant to press him on questions about her late mother or the private aspects of his life. Even before losing him, she felt guilty about preventing him from living his own life. Her dialogue with Mabel also suggests that she discovered some secret about him near or after his death and that this secret has profoundly changed the way she views her grandfather.
Marin’s loneliness comes into relief as she longs for human connection but struggles to make it. Despite Mabel’s obvious love and concern and their previous closeness, Marin struggles to articulate what she’s seen and how she’s feeling. Her numb distance again suggests that Marin’s grief is shadowed by a depression that makes it difficult for her to form or maintain relationships. Mabel’s presence appears to stir something inside of Marin, however. She experiences a broader array of emotions, including: jealousy over Jacob, Mabel’s boyfriend; love, in her fond thoughts of Mabel’s parents and her desire to purchase gifts; and hope, in her fantasy of happily working at the pottery shop.
