46 pages • 1 hour read
Taylor Jenkins ReidMaybe in Another Life
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2015A 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
Cinnamon Rolls
Cinnamon rolls, and particularly Hannah’s well-known and lifelong love for them, feature heavily in the book. While she finds them comforting and delightful simply based on taste, they also hold sentimental value for her, given that her father used to buy them regularly for her when she was a child. The emotional value Hannah places on cinnamon rolls comes to light when her family visits her in the US following the car accident. Before returning to London, her parents leave her with a cinnamon roll from an old family-favorite bakery. Hannah’s parents’ willingness to abide by her wishes despite their desire to stay and care for her coupled with the thoughtful parting gift enables Hannah to recognize that “I never realized how much my parents have always, always loved me” (133).
As they are a known favorite of Hannah’s, cinnamon rolls symbolize the love and affection Hannah is shown by those closest to her. When she moves back to her hometown of LA and visits the Hudsons, she is delighted to see that, despite Tina’s status as a health nut, she has made cinnamon rolls for the special occasion. Similarly, Ethan is also aware of Hannah’s cinnamon roll obsession; knowing her love for them, he makes a point to treat her to cinnamon rolls in both of the novel’s storylines. Perhaps the most effective example of cinnamon rolls as a symbol of love and affection comes in the form of Henry: His persistence in visiting the bakery that he knows makes Hannah’s favorite cinnamon rolls in the hopes of running into her proves he is thoughtful (he remembers the name of the bakery) and is serious about getting to know Hannah.
Homecoming Party
Early in the novel, Hannah’s friends throw her a homecoming party to celebrate her return to LA. The homecoming party is the impetus for the two concurrent storylines that run through the rest of the novel. The party is significant because it presents Hannah with two distinct choices: to go home with her high school sweetheart, Ethan, for whom she still has feelings, or to call it a night and go home with her best friend, Gabby. At the moment, the choice seems inconsequential, but the homecoming party and the subsequent choices Hannah makes come to symbolize fate, a concept that Hannah has been relying on for her entire adult life.
In both scenarios, Hannah contends with the fact that even despite careful decision making, neither fate nor her more thoughtful choices always work out as she intended. Lying in her hospital bed knowing she could have died in the car accident, Hannah realizes “the difference between life and death could be as simple and as uncomfortably slight as a step you take in either direction” (110). Despite the hardships of losing a baby she did not know she had and having to learn to walk again, the scenario enables Hannah to develop newfound gratitude, as she realizes that while “I may be broken and scared, I am alive” (68).
Both scenarios that stem from the decisions Hannah makes on the night of the homecoming party lead her down transformative new paths: Going home with Ethan and wanting to build a future with him eventually empowers her to become proactive about her life plan and try to “make new decisions so that they lead me to better places” (145). Similarly, Hannah’s stint in the hospital leads her to both find a life partner in Henry as well as realize that she wants to become a nurse. Regardless of the outcome of her choices or even fate itself, Hannah has faith that “I’ll get there eventually” (149).
The Hospital
After being the victim of a hit-and-run, Hannah spends much of the storyline in which she goes home with Gabby after her homecoming party lying in a hospital bed. Though Hannah spends much of her time there feeling helpless and discouraged, the hospital ultimately becomes a symbol of hope and possibility. It is in her hospital bed that Hannah feels a strong urge to live her life to the fullest, to be “up and moving and living and doing and seeing” (183).
Though Hannah understands that the accident was not within her control, being in the hospital enables her to understand that “fate or not, our lives are still the results of our choices” (278). Nearly losing her life motivates Hannah to “double down, to do something important and bigger than yourself” (300). Moreover, it is this mindset developed at the hospital that pushes Hannah to consider going to nursing school, as “nurses help people,” and “there’s nothing more important I can do with my time than that” (300). Additionally, it is as a patient at the hospital that Hannah meets Henry, with whom she falls in love and, in this storyline, ends up marrying.
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By Taylor Jenkins Reid
