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
Lara Jean’s oldest friend is Chris. Chris is nothing like Margot: she smokes, hooks up with boys, and has been suspended. In sixth grade, they both liked stationery and movies, but by eighth grade, Chris would come to sleep over, sneak out to meet boys, and then return before dawn. She comes and goes when she feels like it—she sometimes appears in the magnolia tree outside Lara Jean’s window. She and Margot can’t stand each other.
The implication here is that as a rising high school junior, Lara Jean still likes stationery and movies, while Chris has long since moved on. Chris is, in this sense, more experienced than Lara Jean, as she’s experimenting with substances and boys. Lara Jean, by contrast, is mainly focused on supporting her family.
Themes
Chris invites herself over and is in the living room with Lara Jean when Margot gets home. Margot and Chris argue about Chris not using a coaster for her drink, and then Margot flounces upstairs. When Chris sarcastically asks if Josh is going to light candles for Margot once Margot leaves, Lara Jean reveals that they broke up. Chris insists Margot can’t possibly be sad—Margot doesn’t have “normal human emotions.” Then, she suggests that Margot’s absence will be good for Lara Jean. Lara Jean should kiss some boys and live, and not just at the nursing home where she volunteers with Margot. Lara Jean insists the old people at the nursing home are awesome, but Chris remains unconvinced.
Chris is being sarcastic here, but she also makes some significant assumptions about Margot—such as that Margot doesn’t feel her emotions, just because she’s more uptight than Chris is. With this, Chris equates truly living and having fun with emotional openness and freedom. She also frames Margot’s departure as something that will help Lara Jean grow—now, Lara Jean will have to figure out who she is without her big sister around all the time.
Themes
