65 pages • 2 hours read
Jenny HanWe'll Always Have Summer
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2011A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Taking Risks for Love
Conrad Fisher has loved Belly for a long time, but for much of the Summer series is unable to express his true feelings to her. In We’ll Always Have Summer, Conrad realizes that his inability to be vulnerable with Belly before has nearly cost him the love of his life, and he learns the importance of taking risks for love.
For much of the text, Conrad struggles internally with Belly and Jeremiah’s engagement. He does not let on to either of them how much their impending union bothers him, admitting it only to himself: “He was marrying my girl, and I couldn’t do anything about it. I just had to watch it happen, because he was my brother, because I promised” (146). Conrad holds himself to the standard that he cannot pursue Belly because he promised his mother that he would look out for his brother before her death. To Conrad, this means giving up all hope of being with Belly.
Conrad’s mind changes as he spends more time with Belly, planning her wedding and falling deeper in love with her. He receives advice from an older friend, Ernie, who tells him, “If a girl’s the one, all bets are off, family or no family” (210). Conrad takes this advice to heart and confesses his true feelings for Belly after learning of Jeremiah’s infidelity: “I still love you. [...] I don’t know if I’ll ever get you out of my system. Not completely. I have… this feeling. That you’ll always be there” (236). This is a monumental moment in Belly and Conrad’s relationship, as he has never previously confessed his love for her. It is also a huge risk for Conrad, who bares his soul only to have Belly reject him.
Though hurt, Conrad feels better knowing he told Belly his true feelings. On her wedding day, believing that she is still going to marry Jeremiah, Conrad visits Belly to say goodbye: “I need you to know that no matter what happens, it was worth it to me. Being with you, loving you. It was all worth it” (276). Even though, at this point in the story, Conrad does not think he will end up with Belly, he admits to her that he feels the risk was worth taking.
Conrad takes one final risk when, a year later, Belly receives a letter from him while abroad in Spain: “I didn’t write him back, not at first, but they still came, once a month, every month. The first time I saw him again, it was another year, at my college graduation. And I just knew” (289). Conrad and Belly prove that, when taking risks for love, the reward does not necessarily arrive immediately.
Making Difficult Decisions
Belly faces difficult decisions throughout the text that challenge and enable her to grow as an individual. Perhaps the most difficult decision that faces Belly throughout the text is whether she wants to marry Jeremiah or end their relationship to be with Conrad.
In previous books in the series, Belly’s choice to be with Conrad would have been unquestionable. Now, Belly is firm in her desire to try and make her relationship with Jeremiah work. When Conrad professes his love for her, Belly’s immediate response is of both confusion and clarity about the effect that Conrad has on her: “My heart was pounding a million trillion times a minute. I never felt more alive. Anger, sadness, joy. He made me feel it all. No one else had that kind of effect on me. No one” (244). Belly is a passionate person who has always desired a partnership that matches her passion. And yet she acknowledges the far-reaching implications if she were to leave Jeremiah:
If I chose Conrad, I could never go back. [...] Jere would never look at me the way he did now. [...] That would all be lost. [...] And what about our families? [...] It would destroy us. I couldn’t do that. Especially—especially with everything so fragile now that Susannah was gone. [...] I couldn’t give all that up, just for this. Just for Conrad (244).
Belly faces a difficult decision: to marry the one she truly loves and upend their lives or stay with Jeremiah and keep the status quo intact. Ultimately, Belly chooses neither, letting go of Conrad and Jeremiah. This shows emotional maturity from Belly in that she considers the impact her decisions will have on others, even if it brings her pain.
The text proves that making difficult decisions, even ones that harm us in the short term, can have long-term benefits and lead to ultimate happiness. This is true in Belly’s case: By letting go of Conrad for a time, she enables them to eventually come back together and marry. In letting go of Jeremiah and not marrying him, they are able to preserve a love and friendship for one another that would have been destroyed if they had gone through with their wedding: “I look out the window, and there is Jere across the lawn. [...] [O]ur eyes meet. He gives me a small wave. I wave back and blow him a kiss. He smiles and turns back to his date” (290). Belly’s decision not to marry Jeremiah causes short-term pain but allows them both to find happiness with the person they are truly meant to be with.
The Belief That True Love Waits
Belly Conklin is certain that she was meant to “be Belly Fisher one day. I just didn’t know it was going to happen like this” (ii). For as long as she can remember, Belly has been in love with Conrad Fisher. Her love for Conrad is a constant in her life, weathering arguments, fall-outs, and traumatic deaths. As Belly and Conrad make their way back to each other one final time, not without barriers and setbacks, the novel supports the belief that, ultimately, true love does wait.
Even as Belly accepts Jeremiah’s marriage proposal, Belly remembers an evening in December that she spent with Conrad and Cousins Beach. Belly realizes on this trip that her love for him is as immutable as her DNA: “Those feelings, they’d been there all along. All that time. I had to just face it. He was a part of my DNA. [...] I would always have Conrad in my heart” (44-45). When she admits these feelings for Conrad will never subside, Belly must figure out a way to move forward holding two opposing truths in her head: that she loves Conrad and always will but that she also loves Jeremiah.
She settles on the belief that past and present can be split into two distinct parts: “Jeremiah would have everything else—the present me and the future me. That was what was important. Not that past. [...] Firsts were important. But I was pretty sure lasts were even more important” (45). At first, Belly believes this as she and Jeremiah proceed with wedding planning, but the more time she spends with Conrad, the harder it becomes to deny that he is her one true love.
When Belly rejects Conrad’s proposition to leave Jeremiah, it again seems that Belly and Conrad are not fated to be together. Conrad says goodbye to her on her wedding day, and Belly cannot help but feel that the love of her life has slipped through her fingers: “I always believed that we would find our way back to each other every time. That no matter what, we would be connected—by our history, this house. But this time, this last time, it felt final” (277). For a time, this holds true, as Belly and Jeremiah end their engagement and Belly continues college. The next time she sees Conrad, however, the feelings come rushing back: “The first time I saw him again, it was another year, at my college graduation. And I just knew” (289). Years later, Conrad and Belly have waited for each other, and they can finally be together, as they were always meant to be.
The novel does not claim that true love is won without hardship. Belly and Conrad must work individually to grow as people before they are ready to be together. But when they do get married, Belly reflects on the moment with a certainty and peace that can only come when someone has found their true love: “This was our start. This is the moment it becomes real. We are married. We are infinite. Me and Conrad. The first boy I ever slow danced with, ever cried over. Ever loved” (291). In marriage, Belly and Conrad begin the next chapter of their lives together, proving that, in this instance, true love does wait.
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