Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in This Is How It Always Is, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Gender and Binaries
Secrets and Misunderstanding
Violence and Discrimination
Storytelling
Family
Summary
Analysis
Ben and Cayenne are at the beach celebrating the beginning of their senior year. It is cold, but that is okay, since Ben can build a romantic fire. In front of the fire and under a blanket, Cayenne asks Ben how much he loves her. Lots, he answers, but Cayenne wants him to prove it by telling her a secret. Ben doesn’t see what telling secrets will prove, but Cayenne says it will prove that he loves her and trusts her with his secrets. For instance, Cayenne’s dad, Frank, wears “tighty-whities,” and Aggie wet the bed until just last year.
Again, Frankel implies that everyone keeps secrets to some extent, as is the case with Frank’s underwear and Aggie’s bedwetting; however, such inconsequential secrets are hardly on par with the secret of Poppy’s gender, which has implications that reach far beyond Poppy, her friends, and her family. Poppy’s secret affects all transgender people, since Frankel implies keeping such secrets perpetuates hate.
Themes
Ben tells Cayenne that he doesn’t have any secrets, but she doesn’t believe him. Ben promises that he loves her, but he can’t tell her his secrets. Cayenne says that this shows that he does have secrets, and she wants to know them. Ben again says that he can’t tell her, and then they kiss under the blanket. Ben is just a teenager, but he is smart enough to know that secrets—big ones with consequences—shouldn’t be kept from loved ones.
Again, Ben seems to be the voice of reason. He knows that keeping Poppy’s gender a secret is not a good idea and that it has consequences in the form of increased hate and discrimination against the transgender community. Furthermore, Ben suggests that loved ones deserve more respect than secrecy implies; they should instead be trusted with such important secrets.
Themes
