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
Daddy, Lara Jean, and Kitty go pick up Margot from the airport. Margot cut her hair into a bob, and Lara Jean lies that it makes Margot look older. When they get home, Lara Jean is excited to show Margot the cookies she and Kitty made, but Margot is upset that they did Christmas Cookie Bonanza without her. Lara Jean points out that if they’d waited, they wouldn’t have had time to bake them all. She offers Margot an orange creamsicle cookie, but Margot is upset there aren’t any molasses cookies. Margot is also upset they decorated the tree without her. She insists it’ll be dry by Christmas, even though Lara Jean says she’s watering it with Sprite like Grandma said to. This feels oddly like a fight.
The implication here is that Margot’s new haircut actually makes her look younger. This symbolically suggests that Margot, by leaving, has stepped down from her role as the big sister in charge of everything. Now, that’s Lara Jean’s job. This is a difficult proposition for Margot, who seemed to expect to get home and be able to step right back into her role as the family’s decision-maker. It’s unsettling for her to see that Lara Jean has done just fine without her—and so she lashes out.
Themes
Margot excuses herself to take a nap. Lara Jean thinks that it’s hard when someone’s been gone for a long time. At first, she tried to save up everything to tell Margot, but now she’s forgotten most things, and they can only catch up on the biggest news. Lara Jean thinks she should’ve told Margot months ago about when Daddy slipped on a banana peel; if she were to bring it up now, it wouldn’t be funny. Lara Jean never thought she and Margot could lose touch, but now, Lara Jean realizes she knows nothing about Margot or her life in Scotland. Margot doesn’t know much about Lara Jean, either. Does Margot feel the distance too?
Before Margot returned home, it was easy enough for Lara Jean to imagine that Margot would fit right back in. But now, Lara Jean is discovering once again that people are unpredictable, and that her personal fantasies about how things will go don’t actually work out in the real world. Especially since Lara Jean and Margot were so close before Margot left, this makes Lara Jean fear that things will never be the same between the two of them. Margot feels like an entirely different person now.
Themes
Daddy makes spaghetti for dinner and, as they eat, Kitty asks Lara Jean what she’s getting Peter for Christmas. In a mean tone, Margot says she can’t believe Lara Jean is dating Peter; she doesn’t like him. Daddy tries to diffuse the tension by announcing dessert. As he and Kitty fetch bowls, Margot says that Josh wants to see her later. She hopes he realizes they’re broken up and doesn’t try to see her all the time. Lara Jean thinks that’s a mean thing to say and says that he understands the relationship is over. Margot seems surprised.
Margot’s defensiveness stems from the fact that she doesn’t know exactly how Lara Jean has changed since she left. It’s unclear to her why Lara Jean would want to date someone like Peter, and she has no way of knowing that Josh is currently trying to win Lara Jean over. Some of this is a product of Lara Jean’s lies, which suggests that Lara Jean will eventually have to answer for some of this.
Themes
