This Is How It Always Is
Introduction + Context
Plot Summary
Detailed Summary & Analysis
Part I: Once Upon a Time, Claude Was Born Part I: One Date Part I: Residency Part I: Bedtime Story Part I: Things They Told Doctors Part I: Losers Part I: Air Currents and Other Winds Part I: Halloween Part I: Maybe Part I: Invention Part I: Naming Rights Part I: Push Part I: Shove Part I: Mapping Part II: One Thing Part II: Rival Neighbor Princess Part II: Everyone Who? Part II: Strategically Naked Part II: Stalls Part II: Fifty-Fifty Part II: Annus Mirabilis Part II: Preventative Madness Part II: Transformation Part II: Red Roo Rising Part II: Fire Part II: Hedge Enemies Part II: Who Knows? Part II: Parenting in the Dark Part II: I’m Nobody! Who are You? Part III: Vagina Shopping Part III: Exit Rows Part III: Away Part III: Aid Ambiguous Part III: Novice Part III: Bonesetters Part III: Oral Tradition Part III: Under Pants Part III: The Color of Monday Part III: An Ending Part IV: Ever Part IV: After
Themes
All Themes Gender and Binaries Secrets and Misunderstanding Violence and Discrimination Storytelling Family
Quotes
Characters
All Characters Claude/Poppy Rosie Penn Roo/Roosevelt Grumwald/Princess Stephanie Aggie Mr. Tongo The Witch Ben K Howie Victoria Revels Chad Miss Appleton Orion Rigel James Cindy Calcutti Marginny Granderson Camry Nok Jane Doe Nick Calcutti Frank Granderson Dwight Harmon Jake Irving Derek McGuiness Cayenne
Symbols
All Symbols The Buddha Statues
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This Is How It Always Is

by

Laurie Frankel
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Aggie Character Analysis

Frank and Marginny’s daughter, Cayenne’s sister, and Poppy’s best friend and next door neighbor. Aggie is a “tomboy,” and she spends her time digging in the dirt, catching bugs, and playing with trucks. She and Poppy are inseparable and have sleepovers practically every weekend, but Aggie has no idea that Poppy is transgender. Aggie, whose bedroom window faces Poppy’s, says they will be best friends forever and “rival princesses in neighboring castles,” and she says “it would be the worst thing ever” if Poppy had been born a boy like all her brothers. If Poppy was a boy, Aggie says, they couldn’t be best friends. After Poppy is outed as transgender at school, Aggie refuses to talk to Poppy and says she hates her because Poppy lied to her. Poppy should have trusted her with the truth, Aggie says, and it isn’t until after Poppy returns from Thailand that Aggie finally forgives her. Frankel ultimately argues that Poppy should not have kept her gender a secret; however, in the case of Aggie, Aggie gave Poppy little reason to believe that she would accept her if Poppy told her secret. Aggie does accept Poppy in the end, but their friendship is not the same. Like nearly everyone else in the novel, Aggie upends stereotypical gender assumptions, but she also represents the painful rejection many transgender teens face. When Aggie finds out that Poppy is transgender, she stops being her friend, which, as Mr. Tongo points out, is a common occurrence after a transgender teen is outed.

Aggie Quotes in This Is How It Always Is

The This Is How It Always Is quotes below are all either spoken by Aggie or refer to Aggie. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Gender and Binaries Theme Icon
).
Part II: Strategically Naked Quotes

They had four and a half boys, plus Penn, but in some ways, Aggie was maler than any of them. She was a girl who dug holes and ran hard and liked bugs and all that other tomboy shit, but it was more—or maybe less—than that. She'd dismantle toy trucks to build spaceships to fly dolls to day spas built inside killer volcanoes. You just couldn't nail the kid down.

Related Characters: Claude/Poppy, Rosie, Penn, Roo/Roosevelt, Aggie, Ben, Orion, Rigel
Gender and Binaries Theme Icon
Page Number: 142
Explanation and Analysis:
Part II: Fifty-Fifty Quotes

“We couldn't be best friends.” Aggie flung her arm across her eyes. “If your parents didn't beat the fifty-fifty and you were a boy, it would be the worst thing ever.”

Poppy opened her mouth, and everyone waited. Roo looked at his feet. Ben looked at his feet. Rigel and Orion looked at each other's feet. Cayenne narrowed her eyes at all of them. But Poppy swallowed and agreed wholeheartedly: “It would be the worst thing ever.”

Related Characters: Claude/Poppy (speaker), Aggie (speaker), Roo/Roosevelt, Ben, Orion, Rigel, Cayenne
Gender and Binaries Theme Icon
Secrets and Misunderstanding Theme Icon
Page Number: 162
Explanation and Analysis:
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Aggie Quotes in This Is How It Always Is

The This Is How It Always Is quotes below are all either spoken by Aggie or refer to Aggie. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Gender and Binaries Theme Icon
).
Part II: Strategically Naked Quotes

They had four and a half boys, plus Penn, but in some ways, Aggie was maler than any of them. She was a girl who dug holes and ran hard and liked bugs and all that other tomboy shit, but it was more—or maybe less—than that. She'd dismantle toy trucks to build spaceships to fly dolls to day spas built inside killer volcanoes. You just couldn't nail the kid down.

Related Characters: Claude/Poppy, Rosie, Penn, Roo/Roosevelt, Aggie, Ben, Orion, Rigel
Gender and Binaries Theme Icon
Page Number: 142
Explanation and Analysis:
Part II: Fifty-Fifty Quotes

“We couldn't be best friends.” Aggie flung her arm across her eyes. “If your parents didn't beat the fifty-fifty and you were a boy, it would be the worst thing ever.”

Poppy opened her mouth, and everyone waited. Roo looked at his feet. Ben looked at his feet. Rigel and Orion looked at each other's feet. Cayenne narrowed her eyes at all of them. But Poppy swallowed and agreed wholeheartedly: “It would be the worst thing ever.”

Related Characters: Claude/Poppy (speaker), Aggie (speaker), Roo/Roosevelt, Ben, Orion, Rigel, Cayenne
Gender and Binaries Theme Icon
Secrets and Misunderstanding Theme Icon
Page Number: 162
Explanation and Analysis:
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