Things We Left Behind

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-10

Chapters 11-20

Chapters 21-35

Chapter 36-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Themes

Complex Family Legacies

Both Sloane and Lucian are left to confront their family legacies after the deaths of their fathers, and as they gradually unpack their various manifestations of grief, regret, and unprocessed trauma, their often fiery interactions form the central motive force of the plot. While Lucian is dedicated to erasing his abusive father’s stain on the family name, Sloane is set on continuing her father’s legacy of helping those in need. Sloane’s dedication to continuing Simon’s work becomes apparent in the opening chapters, for Sloane suggests starting a legal aid foundation with Lina and Naomi as soon as she discovers Simon’s interest in Mary Louise’s case. Part of Simon’s legacy was providing better opportunities for Mary Louise’s son, Allen, and by helping Mary Louise directly, Sloane wants to carry on this legacy by picking up where her father left off.

The theme of family legacies manifests in a variety of positive ways in Sloane’s family, and she inherits her values from Simon and Karen. It is soon apparent that these values form the crux of the novel, for Sloane also attributes her high expectations for marriage to her parents, because “how was [she] supposed to find a partner in life when no one measured up to what [her] parents had found in each other?” (10). Her parents left an enviable legacy in this regard by being highly effective mentors and parents to their own children and to others in their community, including Lucian. In the novel’s resolution, however, Sloane reconciles her disappointment at not yet having a large family when she finally realizes that she has had love and a large family all along, “thanks to Lucian and [her friends]” (548). Sloane therefore finds solace in the certainty that she is already honoring her family’s legacy, for she knows that Simon would have loved everything about the life she has built.

In a sharp contrast to Sloane’s deep appreciation for her family legacy, Lucian spends his adulthood finding meaningful ways to erase and make up for the abuses in his past. In short, he wishes to avoid repeating the Rollins family legacy—which he defines as the potential for generational abuse. Initially, he pursues this goal in highly maladaptive ways, for he is convinced that in order to leave his past behind, he must give up all aspects of his teenage years, including his friendship with Sloane. Similarly, his decision to have a vasectomy is perhaps the most drastic manifestation of his fear that unless he takes decisive measures, he is somehow doomed to repeat and perpetuate the traumas of his past. He fears that he is unfit for raising children after being “broken” by his father’s abuse. This causes him to ignore his feelings for Sloane as well, believing that if he has a relationship with her, he will only bring darkness into her life.

Lucian plans to sell his childhood home by spring, viewing this decision as another way to free himself from the memories of his past, and “from the weakness [that] those years symbolized” (21). In adulthood, Lucian has built up substantial wealth and has achieved significant success in his career, implementing positive changes for the community and the country. However, he is subconsciously motivated by his desire to outrun the legacy of his father. At the end of the novel, he realizes that the key to rewriting his family legacy is accepting the true family that he has had all along: the Waltons.

Rebuilding a Sense of Self-Worth

An essential part of any lasting relationship is self-love, which his predicated on each partner’s inner certainty that he or she is worthy of receiving love from others. Knox and Nash both struggle with this issue in their respective novels, and in Things We Left Behind, Lucian’s own battle with accepting and valuing himself immediately becomes apparent. Lucian’s traumatic childhood has fostered deep feelings of self-doubt, and these insecurities chase him into his forties, reminding Lucian that “[he will] never be good enough. Not with [Ansel’s] blood in [his] veins” (21). As long as he remains hindered by this mindset, he sees Sloane as a reminder of every unworthy feeling he experienced in childhood. Her stubbornness and Lucian’s love for her make him feel powerless and out of control, and because Lucian views these emotions as signs of vulnerability, he avoids Sloane as assiduously as he has avoided any reminders of his past in the years since he was finally freed from his father’s abuse. Lucian is only so receptive to the therapy offered by his friend, Emry, and has spent most of their relationship “trying to disabuse him of the belief that [he] was worth saving” (28). Lucian’s low opinion of himself powerfully affects his friendships and his love life. Lucian views Sloane as too good for him because she comes from a perfect, happy family with selfless, loving parents, and he believes that to pursue a relationship with Sloane would “taint Sloane’s life with the ugliness of [his] own” (144).

Lucian spends his adulthood chasing career success and materialistic satisfaction, believing that achieving these abstract goals will finally make him feel worthy. From his lonely condo in Washington, DC, Lucian wonders “what Sloane would think of [his] place and what [he]’d accomplished. [He]’d become someone. Forged and empire. And [he]’d gotten strong enough, rich enough, powerful enough [to vanquish] the ghosts of the past” (91). However, although Lucian has gained importance and respect in the wider world, Sloane soon makes him realize that he has been chasing the wrong goals, for fame, money, and success cannot buy happiness or magically give him authentic feelings of self-worth. As the novel progresses, Lucian realizes that self-worth can only be found by accepting the events of the past and forgiving oneself for old mistakes and regrets, and by forging meaningful relationships with others. By the closing chapters of the novel, Lucian comes to forgive himself for the things he couldn’t control in his past and proposes to Sloane only after learning to see the worth in himself.

The Impact of Corruption

Evidence of corruption runs rampant throughout the novel in political, judicial, and domestic affairs. This theme also plays a central role in several of the novel’s flashbacks, as when Lucian is wrongfully imprisoned for a week after defending his mother against his father’s abuse. This traumatic experience becomes a pivotal moment in his life and fuels his lifelong determination to weed out corruption wherever he finds it. Significantly, the teenage Lucian wonders “why some people dedicated their lives to fixing things while others set out only to break them” (265), and although he is referring to the domestic abuse within his family, this rumination also aptly applies to the corruption of local law enforcement, and later, to the corruption he seeks to eliminate from Washington, DC’s political scene.

Lucian’s childhood and teenage years are therefore powerfully affected by the widespread effects of local corruption, particularly as his father displays abusive, lawbreaking, and manipulative behavior that is repeatedly excused by law enforcement officers and overlooked by neighbors. By doing nothing, Ansel’s family and community enable his problematic behavior and allow him to abuse his wife and son, and this systemic indifference—particularly the indifference of Police Chief Wylie—teaches Lucian to believe that “there’s no such thing as justice” (396). This belief estranges Lucian from Sloane for over two decades when Sloane’s naive desire for justice against Ansel inadvertently leads to Lucian’s unjust imprisonment, her broken wrist, and the ruin of the Rollins family.

From the corruption of local police officers such as Wylie Ogden and Tate Dilton to easily bribed judges such as Dirk Atkins, the corruption of the justice system is also a crucial aspect of the conflicts threaded throughout the Knockemout series, for the series villain, Anthony Hugo, has only succeeded in his criminal pursuits due to the internal corruption running throughout multiple systems of power. Lucian believes that human greed lies at the root of such problems, claiming that “the quest for power corrupted, ruining all it touched. Men like [his] father, like Hugo and Ogden and Atkins, left a path of destruction behind them” (562). The theme is also reinforced with the realization that Wylie Ogden receives respect from his community by serving the local police department even as he simultaneously abuses his power by keeping Ansel, out of trouble with the law—even if it means imprisoning an innocent teenager and charging him as an adult before his 18th birthday—a grievous miscarriage of justice.