52 pages • 1 hour read
Meghan QuinnA Not So Meet Cute
Fiction | Novel | Adult | 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.
Symbols & Motifs
The Engagement Ring
When Huxley and Lottie enter an agreement to be each other’s fake fiancés, Lottie is gifted a large engagement ring to make their story more realistic. It’s obviously expensive, more so than anything Lottie’s ever owned, and its ostentatiousness indicates how out-of-place their arrangement makes her feel.
More broadly, in its falseness, the ring represents the disparity between her and Huxley’s circumstances and the eventual development of their relationship, thus developing the theme of The Balance Between Authenticity and Appearances. An engagement ring usually symbolizes the love and commitment between two people, as they are agreeing to spend their lives with one another. Instead, Lottie’s first engagement ring subverts these ideas to represent inauthenticity. The subtle importance of the symbol is highlighted and resolved in the story’s ending, when Huxley proposes to her for real with a different ring, allowing their engagement to truly represent their love.
Lottie’s Clothing
Lottie comes from a working-class background, as she was raised by a single mother in a run-down home within a poorer neighborhood of Beverly Hills. Her clothing is never outright described as indicative of her class in its quality or style, but it nonetheless symbolizes her individuality and her origins. When she moves in with Huxley, she discovers that all her clothing has been put in storage and replaced with an expensive wardrobe that clashes with her personal style. Huxley explains that this is because nobody would believe their story if she wore inexpensive clothing, making the clothes a motif related to the theme of the balance between authenticity and appearances: While Lottie wearing new clothes helps maintain their appearance, it comes at the cost of her authenticity.
The motif evolves in tandem with the characters’ growing emotional honesty. When Lottie and Huxley bond, the shift in their relationship is marked by two things: Huxley gifting her a Fleetwood Mac T-shirt and allowing her original wardrobe to be returned to the home. This shows how he has come to value her interests and style, which indicates how he now cares for her as a person and not as a business partner. It also speaks to the characters’ evolving relationship to both The Impact of Societal Expectations on Personal Choices and The False Allure of Wealth: In their growing comfort with one another, both are less concerned with projecting a conventional image of wealth or success.
Student Loans
Lottie’s student loan debt acts as a primary motivator for her actions at the beginning of the novel, but it also symbolizes her class status. The main hurdle in Lottie being able to move out of her home and overcome the insecurity Angela creates in her is her inability to pay these loans, something wealthier people wouldn’t have to worry about. When she enters the arrangement with Huxley, she is principally trying to solve this financial problem. The loans thus symbolize her class and the perceived lack of freedom that comes with it. Huxley’s nonchalance in paying off her student loans further illuminates the difference between the struggles of people from different classes. What would be a significant amount of money for most people—$30,000—is for him a small bill that he covers without thinking.
Lottie’s debt also plays a key role in her character development, as the real drain on her resources that it represents initially masks some of the less tangible challenges that she faces. With her bills paid, Lottie can begin to come to terms with the fact that money isn’t her only problem, even if it was a big one. Her main internal conflict is her sense of inferiority, something that finances can’t fix. Only when she creates a secure, supportive relationship with Huxley can she resolve this conflict and complete her development as a character.
