Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Family, Responsibility, and Growing Up
Love and Fear
Social Structure, Reputation, and High School
Lies vs. Honesty
Summary
Analysis
In chemistry class, Lara Jean passes Peter a note asking why he told Josh they were “a thing.” After class, Peter finds Lara Jean and says he just did her a favor—she could thank him. Lara Jean does and thinks to herself that he’s insufferable. Lara Jean says that she’s already told Josh they broke up because “Genevieve has you whipped,” but Peter glares at her and insists it’s not true. Lara Jean says there’s a rumor that he has Genevieve’s name tattooed on his butt, but Peter leaps away when Lara Jean reaches for his shirt to confirm.
Lara Jean speaks as though Peter isn’t totally his own person capable of making his own decisions because of his relationship with Genevieve. She’s making a number of assumptions here—there’s no telling what Peter and Genevieve’s relationship was like. Again, Lara Jean’s assumptions are keeping her from taking Peter seriously and getting to know him.
Themes
As Lara Jean giggles, Peter snarls that he and Genevieve aren’t together, and that their breakup was mutual. Lara Jean hastily backtracks and insists that Genevieve and Peter will be back together soon, since they were each other’s first sexual experience. Peter is shocked that Lara Jean knows he and Genevieve had sex. Then, Lara Jean notes that nobody can date Peter anyway, after what happened to Jamila Singh. Peter dated Jamila for a short time last year, and Genevieve spread such awful rumors about her that Jamila’s parents put her in private school.
By bringing up the fact that everyone knows Peter and Genevieve have had sex, Lara Jean introduces readers to an important element of her school’s social structure: kids are acutely aware of what others are doing sexually, and can, in some cases, use that knowledge to control one another. It seems like that’s what Genevieve did to Jamila: she weaponized the possibility that Jamila and Peter were sexually involved in order to bully and humiliate Jamila.
Themes
As Lara Jean chatters about Jamila and Genevieve, Peter suggests that they let people—Genevieve especially—think that they’re dating for a while. It’ll get the point across to Genevieve that she and Peter aren’t together anymore. Lara Jean is dumbfounded and says she doesn’t like Peter like that, but Peter says that’s the point. Lara Jean points out that Genevieve will “kill” girls who are close to Peter, but Peter dismisses this and says pretending to date will help them both out. Sweetly, Lara Jean says she doesn’t want to be Peter’s girlfriend, whether or real or pretend. She changes her mind when Peter says that Josh definitely believed they were together.
Peter’s suggestion shows that he believes he and Lara Jean can play the social system, just like Genevieve did when she spread rumors about Jamila. People wouldn’t expect him to date Lara Jean, so it’d turn heads and change the conversation for a while. But for Lara Jean, this prospect isn’t so simple. Given what happened to Jamila, it follows that she wouldn’t want to risk angering Genevieve. Her fear of Genevieve seems genuine; in a way, Genevieve has real power to control other kids.
Themes
