In the Likely Event

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-7

Chapters 8-14

Chapters 15-20

Chapters 21-27

Chapter 28-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Themes

Abandonment Through Disappointment

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses domestic abuse and mental health conditions, including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which feature in the source text.

In the first scene in which Izzy’s parents are introduced, they choose to remain on a cruise vacation rather than returning home after learning that Izzy has survived a plane crash. Izzy’s reaction to this decision shows that this sort of indifference on her parents’ part is something that she and her sister Serena have come to expect. This behavior continues when Izzy’s parents fail to visit her on her birthday in 2014 despite promising to do so. Yet even as Izzy’s parents neglect her life, they also expect her to conform to their selfish wishes. This pattern becomes evident when they make it clear how disappointed they would be if she were to marry a mere soldier. This behavior has caused Izzy a great deal of disappointment throughout her life and has caused her to develop abandonment issues. Faced with repeated disappointments from her parents, Izzy struggles with the conviction that people will always choose to abandon her for their own convenience, and this fear leaves her with an inability to trust others. The one exception to this, however, is Nate.

Izzy’s relationship with Nate pushes the boundaries of her abandonment issues, for Nate saves her from the aftermath of a plane crash and then proceeds to establish a pattern in which he shows up for her when she isn’t expecting him to do so. This dynamic is shown when Nate shows up unexpectedly at a bachelorette party and spends the following day with Izzy at the drop of a phone call. This willingness to rearrange his life to spend time with Izzy shows her that all she has to do is call him, and he’ll be there for her. This eagerness to be with her clashes with his clear reluctance to define and commit to their relationship because of the demands of his military career. As Nate continues to support Izzy over the years, these positive interactions strengthen Izzy’s belief that he will always be there for her. Thus, Nate earns Izzy’s trust in a way that no one else has been able to do.

However, when Izzy travels to Palau with the expectation that Nate will show up there as well, his failure to do so utterly shatters her trust. When Nate fails to show up, Serena becomes the only dependable person that Izzy has left. His apparent abandonment tarnishes Izzy’s view of him and causes a nearly irreparable rift between them. In the aftermath of this event and of Nate’s failed proposal, Izzy becomes engaged to another man who has never been reliable, but who is nonetheless familiar and comfortable. Until the tumultuous events in Afghanistan reset her priorities, she resigns herself to a life that she doesn’t want because she believes Nate has abandoned her.

The Long-Term Impact of Domestic Violence

Izzy is not the only one who deals with childhood trauma that impacts her adult relationships, for Nate also struggles to open up to people, including Izzy, as he navigates the world as best he can despite his long experience as a survivor of domestic violence. Nate’s childhood has forged him into a person who places himself in danger in order to protect others from harm. His troubled childhood has also inspired a distrust of others that has caused him to keep his story and his emotions from everyone around him, including Izzy. Nate believes that by keeping Izzy in the dark about his career, his story, and his emotions, he is protecting her from the darkness that exists in the world. At the same time, Nate refuses to share his inner thoughts and fears with his fellow soldiers as well, though Julian Torres becomes the exception. This reticence makes Nate’s world a lonely place and keeps Izzy from becoming a real part of his life until the very end of the novel.

Nate believes that by avoiding intimacy with Izzy, he is protecting her from the realities of a soldier’s life. However, as time passes, it becomes clear shutting Izzy off from his inner thoughts and feelings is only hurting her. It is Nate’s inability to share himself with Izzy and others that leads to the misunderstanding that temporarily ends their relationship. Not only does Nate’s childhood in a home with domestic violence directly impact his relationship with Izzy, but it also causes him to ignore his later symptoms of PTSD. Nate feels that he cannot express the truth of his emotional trauma because it would negatively impact his ability to serve in the military. Due to his habit of avoiding his emotions and keeping them hidden from others, Nate’s PTSD is allowed to worsen to the point that he develops a form of psychosis that could directly impact his ability to serve his country even as it permanently damages his mental health. Many of these developments can be traced to Nate’s upbringing within a household that was profoundly impacted by domestic violence, for in such a home, showing vulnerable emotions often results in punishment. However, by reconnecting with Izzy and realizing how much damage he has done by keeping his thoughts and feelings to himself, Nate learns to open up and ultimately seeks treatment, pursuing a happier and healthier existence.

The Myriad Effects of Psychological Trauma

Both protagonists experience the traumatic event of a plane crash early in their adulthood. This crash causes both characters to struggle with the long-term mental health consequences of the experience, and each one deals with their trauma in different ways. While Izzy seeks help with her struggles and learns effective coping mechanisms for her intensified fear of flying, she becomes concerned when Nate has not done the same. When he resists her encouragement to seek help by stating that doing so would potentially disqualify him from being eligible to pursue a military career, his resistance foreshadows the greater threats to his mental health that will be revealed later in the novel, for Nate’s subsequent coping mechanism of speaking to his deceased friend, Julian Torres, proves to be maladaptive in the extreme. Struggling in the aftermath of his best friend’s death, Nate engages in a type of dissociation that allows him to converse with a hallucination of Julian, thereby keeping his friend alive in some form. It is also important to note that Nate is fully aware of the hallucinatory nature of Julian’s presence, for he manages to fulfill his military duties despite his ongoing mental health issues.

Nate’s experiences in the army as well as the plane crash compound his struggles with trauma and lead to his diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). However, for Nate, the trauma began much earlier in his life, for his parents’ abusive household exposed him to an array of traumatic experiences before he was old enough to properly process or resist them. Being a child in a home where he is abused and feels the need to protect his mother creates an atmosphere of constant fear, and this early trauma profoundly shapes Nate’s personality and makes him more resilient. However, experiencing trauma after trauma without the aid of proper coping mechanisms also increases his risk of developing mental health issues, ultimately leading to the crippling dissociation and hallucinations that Nate experiences as an adult.