56 pages • 1 hour read
Rebecca YarrosThe Last Letter
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Building Trust Through Vulnerability and Commitment
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of the death of a child.
Ella and Beckett, the protagonists of The Last Letter, both struggle with trust issues at the beginning of the book. However, as they gradually open up to each other, sharing their vulnerabilities and demonstrating unwavering commitment, they begin to build a deep sense of trust, illustrating that trust in a relationship is founded on mutual honesty and consistent support.
Ella’s and Beckett’s fear of relationships and unwillingness to trust stem from distinct personal histories, highlighting how past experiences shape approaches to intimacy and trust. Ella’s wariness comes from the men in her life never staying. Ella could not depend on her father, her ex-husband, or even Ryan, despite his deep love for his sister, in her times of need. Beckett, too, is wary of connection and commitment, but his unease comes from a belief that he is not capable of these things in a relationship. While Ella doesn’t trust men in relationships, Beckett doesn’t trust himself in a relationship. The contrasting origins of their fears underscore the complex nature of trust and vulnerability, yet both experience a similar end result: an unwilling isolation borne of a lack of trust.
However, as their relationship grows, Beckett and Ella come to trust each other and themselves by demonstrating commitment and risking vulnerability. This emerging trust begins with their written correspondence. Despite claiming she has no one in her life she can lean on, Ella begins to open up to Chaos in her letters, coming to depend on his replies as a source of comfort. Beckett, similarly, reaches for connection and companionship with Ella through her letters. This progress translates into how both Beckett and Ella operate around each other when they finally meet in person. Beckett’s previous self-assessment as someone unworthy of trust is negated by his actions with Ella and the twins. He shows up consistently, assisting not just Ella when she needs help with logistics, but also offering her a shoulder to cry on and becoming another caring adult presence in the twins’ lives. Beckett matches this commitment with vulnerability by opening up to Ella about painful experiences, like accidentally killing a child. Accordingly, over time, he earns not just Ella’s trust but the twins’ as well with his demonstrated commitment to be there for them. Ella, similarly, surprises herself by willingly letting Beckett into her and her children’s lives. She moves past her distrust of men by not only initiating a romantic relationship with Beckett but also handing over significant rights and responsibilities for her children when Beckett adopts them. Just as Beckett grows to trust himself in a relationship, so too does Ella trust that she can rely on a man.
The couple’s foundation of vulnerability and commitment is tested when Beckett finally reveals his true identity, underscoring that while honesty may not be a constant in relationships, trust can persevere. Their relationship is briefly fractured because of Beckett’s lie. Owing to her past experiences with dishonesty, Ella is upset when she learns that Beckett is Chaos, seeing it as a betrayal rather than Beckett’s attempt at protection. However, the months of sincere work and progress that Beckett puts into the relationship, both before the truth comes out and after it, allow Ella to eventually forgive him. For the first time in her life, Ella is able to dole out a second chance, and for the first time in his life, Beckett believes he is capable of doing good with it.
The Healing Power of Love and Relationships
Though its narrative is marked by tragedy, The Last Letter ends on a note of love and hope, suggesting that the characters will heal from grief over time. As Ella and Beckett’s experiences demonstrate, romantic, platonic, and familial love make such healing possible.
From its platonic inception to its romantic conclusion, both Ella and Beckett experience their relationship as a healing force. Accustomed to bearing difficulty alone, Ella finally has someone to lean on during Maisie’s treatment upon Beckett’s arrival in Telluride. The significance of this support comes through in the number of times she allows herself to cry or give in to emotions around Beckett. Ella’s emotional freedom around Beckett contrasts with her earlier stoic façade as she refused to express any emotion when she learned of Maisie’s diagnosis. Bolstered by Beckett’s love, Ella finally allows herself to fully experience the highs and lows that accompany Maisie’s cancer treatment, revealing her marked emotional growth. Beckett’s ability to play this role for Ella, however, emerges out of emotional healing through his written correspondence with Ella as Chaos. Early in their correspondence, Beckett avoids connection, love, and relationships because of experiences he had as a child. However, the acceptance and love that Ella offers him first as Chaos and then as Beckett demonstrates to the man that he is worthy of love and capable of connection.
Beckett’s healing does not only come from romantic love, however: The relationships he forges with Colt and Maisie are also instrumental in helping him see his worth differently. Both Colt and Maisie connect with Beckett almost instantly; Maisie’s acceptance, in particular, is meaningful, as by Ella’s description she is a more careful judge of character. The children come to adore and depend on Beckett in multiple ways; they are briefly heartbroken at his absence from his life after Ella and him break up and thrilled when he is allowed back in. For Colt, the realization that Beckett truly is his father brings him great joy and peace toward the end of his short life. Alongside Beckett’s feelings for Ella, his love for the twins is a central factor in his decision to put down roots in Telluride. He demonstrates his growth when he offers to not only adopt the children but eventually build a house and settle down with them and Ella. Beckett moves from not wanting to have children for fear of being a bad influence to not only adopting the twins but eventually having biological children with Ella, demonstrating how familial love empowers him to shift his self-limiting perspectives.
Resilience in the Face of Tragedy
Throughout The Last Letter, Ella and Beckett must face multiple forms of tragedy, compounded by their difficult personal histories. Before the novel begins, Ella lost both her parents and her grandmother, and her ex-husband left her just as she discovered she was pregnant. At the beginning of the story, she learns that her daughter has cancer, shortly after which she loses her brother, Ryan. Beckett, too, has experienced a great deal of loss and death during his time in the military. Ryan’s death, however, is as unsettling for him as it is to Ella because Ryan is the closest thing Beckett has to family. Though both initially confront tragedy by shutting others out, their relationship ultimately reveals the power of love, emotion, and vulnerability amid loss, complicating definitions of Resilience in the Face of Tragedy.
At the beginning of the novel, both Ella and Beckett have been hardened by tragedy in some ways, making each resistant to letting people into their lives, especially romantically. Ella refuses to be emotional following Maisie’s diagnosis, fearing that demonstrating her pain would prevent her from being strong for her children. Similarly, Beckett initially declines to read Ella’s letters, convinced that he has no need for emotional connection. The protagonists’ initial self-isolation serves as a protective measure, which they each believe is essential to maintain their own strength and resilience.
However, Beckett and Ella come together through their shared experiences of loss, with each contributing different assets to their relationship that strengthen their shared resilience. Beckett becomes a shoulder to lean on for Ella during Maisie’s illness. He also becomes a source of strength and support for the children, logistically and emotionally. He helps out with Colt’s soccer practices and Maisie’s hospital stays but also uplifts both the children’s spirits on different occasions and brings them joy. Ella, for her part, teaches Beckett about his capacity for love and commitment, enabling him to move beyond isolation and embrace family and romantic partnership.
Through their relationship, both Beckett and Ella understand that they are capable of resilience that is not dependent on hardness or toughness, revealing the connection between resilience and The Healing Power of Love and Relationships. Ella realizes the importance of self-care and letting herself feel her emotions to stay strong, while Beckett learns how to do the same even while caring deeply about other people. Thus, Ella doesn’t break apart after Colt’s death the same way she does after Ryan’s, and Beckett doesn’t bolt when he is unable to save Colt. Both lean on each other through their grief, enabling them to support Maisie and even hope for happiness in the future. While previous tragedies saw both protagonists isolating or shutting down, the couple’s forward-looking perspective after Colt’s death allows them to respect their grief while nurturing familial love and connection, demonstrating newfound resilience in the face of tragedy.
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By Rebecca Yarros
