61 pages • 2 hours read
Sarah DessenAlong for the Ride
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2009A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Auden
Raised as a “little adult” (7), dynamic protagonist Auden is an intelligent, stoic, judgmental, mature, quiet, and introverted young woman who would rather spend time alone with books than with people. As the younger of two siblings, Auden barely experienced a childhood, saying, “by the time I came along, my brother—the most colicky of babies, a hyperactive toddler, a ‘spirited’ (read ‘impossible’) kid–had worn my parents out [...] I was…the child who, at three, would sit at the table during grown-up discussions about literature and color my coloring books, not making a peep” (7). Due to being praised for her silence and “very mature” (8) for her age, Auden was taken to adult events like symphonies, art shows, conferences, and meetings by her professor parents. Thus, Auden finds social interactions difficult. She often cannot relate to kids her age, unable to understand their energy or wild antics, such as pillow fights and bike riding. Though Auden thinks these foreign activities look fun, she isn’t sure if she’d take the chance to try them.
Because only academics earned attention from her parents Victoria and Robert, she excels at every subject. Particularly when Auden’s parents fight, she escapes into her textbooks and studies, for school is her “solace,” letting her “live a thousand vicarious lives” through books (9). Because of her parents’ constant fighting throughout her middle school and high school years, Auden dives more deeply into her studies. Though she’s not surprised by Victoria and Robert’s divorce when she’s a high school sophomore, Auden represses her feelings of neglect, abandonment, and loss. She becomes more stoic and closed off to love after witnessing her parents’ tumultuous, competitive relationship and heated arguments.
After the divorce, she hardly sees her parents, as her father concentrates on his novel writing, and her mother focuses on her teaching. With the influence of two career-oriented professors, Auden continues working hard at her studies and becomes more independent, developing a mindset like her mother to judge as lesser others who don’t match her intellect. Like Victoria, she also dismisses juvenile activities—like school dances, sleepovers, and sports—as unnecessary distractions.
Throughout the novel, Auden learns to reframe her perspectives about work and play. She transforms because she takes the uncharacteristically spontaneous leap to visit her father, Heidi, and Thisbe in their beach town. Soon, Auden bonds with girlfriends Maggie, Esther, and Leah and starts a romance with Eli. She regrets misjudging women like Maggie and Heidi as insubstantial and unworthy of her time, for they’re stronger, wiser, and more talented than Auden believed. She broadens her experiences, valuing relationships and social activities more highly, as she has fun and opens her heart to love.
Auden slowly changes for the better, investing her time not only in studying but in a wider world of social interactions and outlets she never had the pleasure of enjoying before. The quest with Eli (and her friendship with the girls) gives Auden the chance to have experiences she missed like bowling, dancing at a club, attending parties, bonding through girl talk, falling in love with her first boyfriend, and learning to ride a bike.
She admits to Eli that she failed not only at having a social life but at keeping her parents together. As an effect of her upbringing and the divorce, she can’t stand when she isn’t talented at something—especially a mundane task like bowling. Eli instills perseverance in her, supporting her and opening up about his friend’s death to bring them closer. Due to Eli’s influence, Auden grows into a more emotionally open and free-spirited character who is no longer afraid of failure.
Auden learns to ride a bike, which is a symbolic plot element that brings her story full circle, becoming a more mature young adult by regaining her childhood. She overcomes her tendency to give up on things if she doesn’t succeed right away, as she did with academics. Instead, she keeps getting back on the bike, learning to ride after many crashes. Her friends Maggie and Adam teach her, and after many hours of determined effort, Auden can ride a bike.
She comes into her own by finding the courage to make her own decisions, even if her parents disapprove. No longer a quiet, stoic person, Auden uses her voice to stand up to her parents. For example, she tells Victoria that she doesn’t want to live in the solitary dorms at college and defends Heidi when Victoria makes fun of her. Auden also confronts her father after he separates from Heidi and Thisbe; she thinks of how he needs to get back on the bike and tells him he must stop making excuses and giving up, that he needs to return home and prove his love to Heidi and Thisbe. Ultimately, Auden becomes more assertive, open, vulnerable, brave, and extroverted because of her summer experiences.
Eli
Professional biker Eli is an athletic, quiet, easygoing insomniac when Auden meets him. Before he lost his best friend, Abe, he was an outgoing, fun-loving, and highly social young man. Now 20, Eli has given up his sponsorship for biking professionally and works at a bike shop on the boardwalk instead. He’s also much more reclusive than before Abe’s death. Though he secretly began riding again, only Auden sees him practicing his bike moves late at night. Since it has been months since Abe’s death, Eli feels he can finally follow his passion, so he gradually rides more often.
When Auden learns about Abe from Maggie, she unknowingly looks at Eli with pity, and he’s upset by her new perspective on him. He dislikes being seen as broken, and he admits he liked her because she didn’t know about his past and didn’t compare who he is now to who he was then. Since she saves the conversation and reconnects with him, Eli forgives Auden—even when she admits she slept with his brother Jake and regrets that mistake—and takes her to Clyde’s for pie. After this first night, their connection develops naturally. Eli acts as a steady, comforting force that Auden can rely on.
Eli functions not only as Auden’s first love/romantic interest but also as her mentor. His dual role is displayed through the quest he initiates; this quest allows him not only to spend time with her but to teach her valuable lessons. He tells Auden that it’s okay to not be talented at everything, helping her address her feelings about achievement. Through bowling, running errands, dancing, and more, he helps Auden escape her sheltered life, alter her ideals about people changing, have fun for the sake of fun, and take second chances. Slowly, he chips away the armor around Auden’s heart, and in the process falls in love with her too.
Because of Auden’s influence, Eli also becomes more social again. He attends his friend’s barbecue and has a food fight with Auden. After they hit a rough patch in their relationship, he starts competing on his bike. Simply by being herself and offering him real, caring company, Auden helped Eli overcome Abe’s death and finish his biking career by winning first place in Abe’s honor. He then pursued his other dream of going back to college, a quest Auden assists him with now in a turn of roles.
Victoria
Auden’s mother, Dr. Victoria West, is an intelligent, career-oriented, successful, judgmental, and stoic woman. Victoria is an esteemed professor who has won numerous awards, and her articles on her specialized subject matter of Renaissance Literature are renowned. Victoria is a positive role model for Auden to achieve academic excellence. When it comes to relationships, Victoria doesn’t often show deep emotions, as she’s more analytical than affectionate. She doesn’t teach Auden about developing social connections or spend time on typical mother-daughter bonding activities. Victoria looks down upon these activities, expecting Auden to follow her footsteps into the world of intellectuals and disown things as ridiculous and beneath them as manicures, fashion, and athletics.
Victoria gets along better with men than women, hosting many parties at her house for her grad school students to discuss in-depth literature topics. Usually, only men attend and admire her greatness. She’s used to being the smartest woman in the room, a fact she relishes. Thus, Victoria dislikes Hollis’s new girlfriend Laura more than the other women in his past because Laura is a clever, extremely well-educated scientist. She must work through her superiority and accept Hollis’s true love. Her volatile marriage with Robert caused Victoria to only feel comfortable with flings, never committing to a serious relationship again.
When Victoria visits Auden for the first time, she judges her as becoming a ditzy girl like Heidi, but she realizes her harshness later. She visits Auden on the night of the Beach Bash and finally opens up:
I thought I was losing you. [...] When you came down here to your father and Heidi, and made all these friends. And then with the argument we had about the dorms…I suppose I’d just gotten comfortable thinking we were on the same page. And then, suddenly, we weren’t. It was very strange. Almost lonely. [...] But I suppose it was very jarring for me. To see you changing so quickly (364).
Victoria fears that Auden doesn’t have a place for her in her new world of social activities and a boyfriend. She also admits she should have talked more about the divorce with Auden and hopes her choices, like the divorce, haven’t ruined anything for her. Auden states it’s all right if they don’t agree on everything, assuring her they will stay close, but they should practice emotional conversations. Victoria promises to work on her “girl talk” skills and letting people get close to her.
At the end of the novel, she communicates more deeply with Auden, rather than only discussing her work. Victoria also works through her romantic issues and gets back together with her graduate student Finn; she ended their fling, as usual, but Finn is in love with her, and Victoria decides to accept the challenge of commitment again. Victoria turns into a more open, tender, and accepting character.
Robert
Auden’s father Robert is a novelist and professor of writing. Though creative and smart, he’s moody, selfish, manipulative, and oblivious to how his actions (and inactions) affect others. After Robert and Victoria’s strained marriage, he lived alone and distanced himself from his family unwittingly. Auden reflects that her father was in such a sour mood after the divorce that she didn’t want to spend time with him at his apartment. He still contacted Auden and Hollis, but Robert missed many events, including Auden’s high school graduation—though he’s excused for this absence because Thisbe was born on this day.
Starting his new life with his young wife Heidi and baby Thisbe, he still isn’t good at caretaking. He left most of the parenting to Victoria, especially for colicky baby Hollis, who grew into a wild, willful boy and got into trouble often. Now, Robert repeats this pattern with Heidi and Thisbe. He expects Heidi to take care of their newborn, who is fussy. Although Heidi pleads for help and teamwork, Robert reminds her that she agreed he needs to finish his book and that he requires nine hours of sleep per night. He insinuates that she invited Auden to be an extra babysitter, since Heidi won’t hire a nanny, which wrongly pushes his fatherhood responsibilities onto Auden. He often twists situations in his favor:
I knew my dad [...] if things got complicated, he extricated himself, somehow managing to make it seem like it was the most selfless of gestures, instead of just the opposite. He wasn’t abandoning Heidi and Thisbe: he was simplifying their lives. He hadn’t left my mom over professional envy: he’d stepped aside to give her the spotlight she needed (334).
Robert gets what he wants because he knows how to manipulate others.
Like Victoria, Robert treats Auden like an adult. In one scene, he comments that Heidi hires teenage girls to work at her boutique, without viewing Auden herself as a teenage girl. Because he values her maturity, he trusts Auden enough to express himself about Heidi and his novel when they go out to dinner together, showing his endearing qualities: “Between the pound of shrimp and his detailed explanation about this character’s inner conflict, I was reminded of everything I loved about my dad: his passion for his work, and the way, when he was talking to you about it, it was like there was no one else in the room, or even the world” (76). Robert’s creative spirit is one of his greatest qualities, an admirable passion. He also vents about Heidi not understanding that this novel could make a huge financial difference for their family. Auden thinks it’s nice that her father feels he can confide in her.
In some ways, Robert is a mirror to Auden. He has antisocial tendencies, preferring to spend time alone writing in his study. He also gives up quickly on things that don’t work out. Robert similarly doesn’t enjoy failure, but, unlike Auden, he doesn’t learn to push through struggles until much later in life. When he and Heidi separate, he feeds Auden the cliche line that love isn’t always enough. Instead of working through struggles with Heidi and compromising, he chooses to quit, citing that Heidi and Thisbe are likely better without his influence. Only when Auden confronts him, advising him to take his opportunity to win Heidi back and be there for his new baby, does Robert finally change. For most of the novel, he’s a static character, but he transforms by the book’s conclusion. Because Auden spoke up for Heidi and Thisbe, he realized his mistakes and became a more active, compassionate, and considerate father and husband. He decides to teach only one class to spend more time with his family and not use every free moment pitching his new book.
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