Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Me Before You, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Ambition and Achievement
Love and Sacrifice
Quality of Life
Fitness
Summary
Analysis
September 29. Lou follows instructions that Will left for her in his will. This leads her to a small café in Paris, drinking a dark coffee and eating a croissant. Lou finishes reading a letter from Treena, which assures her that their mother will calm down soon. Lou then thinks of a letter she received from Camilla where Camilla finally thanked Lou for the comfort Lou gave Will in his last months and admitted that Lou must miss Will as much as she herself does.
Even after Will is gone, he is able to push Lou to pursue new experiences and broaden her horizons. Will’s death also brought Camilla and Lou together – they are the ones who loved Will most of all. Camilla finally recognizes that Lou’s love for Will is just as important as her love for her son.
Themes
Lou then opens the last letter from Will. It tells her exactly how to spend her afternoon in Paris, and then outlines the arrangements that Will made for Lou before he died. There is a small account for Lou waiting in London to cover her college courses. Will explains that Lou changed his life irrevocably and brought him more happiness than he thought possible. He now wants to repay the favor and enable Lou to live the life she has always had the potential to enjoy. Will ends the letter telling Lou, “Just live.”
Will’s last letter gives Lou both the emotional and the practical support to fully follow her dreams. The letter also affirms the love that Will and Lou shared, while telling Lou to live her life fully instead of mourning his loss forever. The main message of the novel is that each person has to live their life to the fullest of their ability, no matter what tragedies or hardships they may face.
Themes
Lou puts down the letter and wipes her tears as the handsome Parisian waiter offers her another coffee, or a cognac, to help with her emotional news. Lou declines, pays her bill, and sets off to enjoy Paris as Will meant her to.
Lou ends the novel in a sea of possibilities in Paris. There is now nothing holding her back from realizing her true potential and living up to her dreams.
Themes
