Nothing Like the Movies

The cemetery where Wes’s father and Liz Buxbaum’s mother are buried is symbolic of grief. When Liz visits her mom here, she talks to her mom. She is overcome by sorrow even though she lost her mom years prior. Her emotional response to visiting the cemetery conveys her lingering sadness over the death of her mom. Wes has a similarly charged emotional experience when he visits his dad’s headstone while back home in Omaha. The setting reawakens the characters’ sorrow over their parents’ death and challenges them to confront their grief. As a setting, the cemetery contributes to the theme of the Journey Toward Healing and Forgiveness.

For both Liz and Wes, UCLA is symbolic of the future. The school offers the protagonists the opportunities that they’ve dreamed about throughout their adolescence. Through UCLA, Liz secures her internship with Lilith Grossman, and Wes makes it onto the Bruins team. Meanwhile, they both commit to their classwork and thrive in the academic sphere. This collegiate setting also backgrounds the theme of Personal Growth and Coming-of-Age Journeys and ushers them toward change.

The flowers and candles that Wes tries to leave on Liz’s balcony are symbolic of hopefulness and support the theme of Balancing Expectations and Reality. Wes is convinced that he will win Liz back if he “pull[s] off some amazing romantic gesture” (323). He believes that recreating scenes from Liz’s favorite romantic media, such as Romeo and Juliet and Love Actually, is the best way to prove his love. However, the flowers and candles are part of a fantasy that doesn’t align with Liz and Wes’s reality. His grand gestures, while representative of his hope, don’t pan out as he expects. Notably, the image of Liz’s neighbor hosing down the balcony with these gifts captures the misalignment of Wes’s hopes with his reality.

Wes and Liz’s matching Halloween costumes are symbolic of connection, as they incidentally dress as Batman and Batgirl. Their costumes capture the importance of the characters’ history and romantic past. They share an intimate bond despite their breakup and the time they’ve spent apart. The costumes are a manifestation of this lasting connection and thus foreshadow their reconciliation and rekindled relationship at the novel’s end.

For both Wes and Liz, running is symbolic of escape. The repeated images of the protagonists going on runs convey their desires to leave the past behind and pursue the future single-mindedly. Running grants them the illusion of freedom. However, the novel shows that the characters must confront and process rather than avoid their pasts. Additionally, this form of exercise allows the characters to reflect on their feelings in a healthy, clear-minded way. The physical movement offers an escape from their internal unrest.

The novel’s repeated allusions to popular music and song lyrics act as a motif representing hope. Wes and Liz have a habit of thinking about their favorite lyrics when they’re in an emotionally complex situation. In particular, they often recall lyrics from songs that remind them of their past relationship. This demonstrates how the characters still think of each other and their shared past. These lyrics also grant insight into how they’re feeling and illustrate their desire to embrace hope when they’re feeling confused or alone.

Liz’s internship with Lilith is symbolic of success. Through the internship, Liz is “making a sports documentary at UCLA” while learning about the trade from Lilith, “an accomplished video producer in the sports world” (17). This opportunity validates Liz’s sense of self and offers her a direct path to the vocational future she wants. She devotes herself to the internship even when the work is challenging because she believes that the job will grant her success in the future. The internship also makes her feel proud of herself. Working with Lilith puts her on the path to becoming a successful documentarian. It empowers her whenever she performs her intern duties well.