40 pages • 1 hour read
Rachel Lynn SolomonToday Tonight Tomorrow
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2020A 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
The Difficult Experience of Growing Up and Embracing Change
Today Tonight Tomorrow is a bildungsroman, a story about coming of age. Like many protagonists in the young adult genre, Rowan Roth is in the midst of this rite of passage, but the transition from adolescence to adulthood is not easy. As she reflects on the last four years of her high school life—which she dedicated to her academics, her peers, and her community—Rowan has a difficult time accepting that it will all be over soon. Her journey through the conclusion of one life stage to the start of another underscores a truth that all teenagers must learn: Growing up is inevitable, and change is never easy—but it is crucial to negotiating one’s sense of self and moving forward.
At the outset of the novel, Rowan finds herself physically frozen in place following the final school-wide assembly of her high school career. While everyone happily files out of the gymnasium, Rowan sits back in awe, knowing that she doesn’t “go here anymore, but [she] can’t bring [herself] to leave” (41). Though she is a smart person and knows that all things must realistically come to an end, she finds herself emotionally confused and stuck on the last day of high school, internally grappling with things that she is “not sure [she’s] ready to say out loud” (46).
Part of what makes Rowan so wary of letting go of high school and accepting that it is time for her to move onto another chapter of her life is the fact that she feels like high school did not end on her own terms. After dreaming of being named valedictorian—and particularly being named valedictorian over her rival, Neil McNair—losing out on that title makes Rowan feel as if she is leaving without having resolved a major issue. The feeling of incompleteness that follows this loss is so overwhelming that she resolves to win Howl (and effectively beat Neil) at any cost, one last time. This impulse demonstrates the fact that she views winning against Neil as a viable form of closure. Rowan seems to feel that if she is allowed one last victory, she will be able to finally walk away from high school. These feelings are summed up in the idea that “the longer [she] stay[s] in the game, the longer [she] remain[s] in high school” and “the longer [she doesn’t] have to face […] reality” (84).
Throughout the day, Rowan slowly comes to terms with leaving high school behind, and she even grows hopeful about what lies ahead. When she sneaks into the school library with Neil to return her books, she realizes that she is now looking at the place from a new perspective, as “[i]t doesn’t feel like [her] school” (159). She also realizes that what she has been “chasing all day” is simply more time to enjoy and reflect on her experience before being thrown into a brand-new one, an idea that induces anxiety (161). While she is now acutely aware that “the things that mattered to us for the past four years will shift and evolve,” she also recognizes that reality, in which life is constantly changing and moving forward, is “terrifying” (161).
The Pressure to Live Up to Others’ Expectations
As Rowan confronts the end of high school, she must also consider the future. This leads to a key realization: While external expectations weigh heavy on her shoulders, she is the only one living her life. To be true to herself, she must learn to embrace her own desires and pursue her own goals.
Breaking free from expectation is easier said than done. A high-achieving person and straight-A student, Rowan has always felt pressured to live up to everyone’s expectations of her. Rowan is intelligent, confident, and ambitious, and she spends her four years of high school doing her very best to uphold the standards that others have placed upon her. Rowan knows all too well that a person with great potential is not supposed to be so deeply invested in the world of romance literature, something she calls her guilty pleasure. Rowan’s love of romance novels—and particularly of those penned by her favorite author, Delilah Park—motivates her to attend one of Delilah’s book signings. Moreover, it is Rowan’s desire for acceptance that pushes her to attend the event: She is sick of having to either hide or convince others that romance novels are legitimate and undervalued, but she hopes that meeting like-minded people will be beneficial to her in the long run, and that perhaps meeting them will allow “some of their confidence to rub off on [her]” (63).
Another notable way in which Rowan feels pressured to live up to certain expectations arises from the realization that she has not accomplished a single goal from the “Guide to High School Success” list that she wrote as a freshman. When she comes to this realization, which occurs as she learns that she was not named valedictorian, Rowan cannot help but feel like a failure. The fact that none of her freshman goals were met during her four years at Westview makes her feel that “every dream [was] dashed, every plan foiled, some by time and some by circumstance and some just because [she] wasn’t good enough” (41). After having spent four years establishing herself as one of the best, the guide makes her feel that she did not become “the person [she] wanted to be by the end of high school” (41).
By the novel’s end, however, Rowan has learned to ignore the pressure to live up to certain expectations and instead resolves to simply live her life the way she wants to. Rowan and Neil pen a brand-new guide geared toward her college life, and many of their points prioritize being happy and having fun, which indicates that she is no longer willing to bow down to others’ expectations.
Letting Go of Fear and Embracing the Unknown
Fear plays a major role in the novel. It is particularly apparent in Rowan’s arc, where it manifests as a stifling force. Rowan fears leaving behind her high school life, she fears judgment of her passions, and she fears the vulnerability that comes with sharing her writing. Learning to move past this fear, to be vulnerable and accept the unknown, is key to her coming of age.
Rowan’s fear is most notable in the way she maintains and expresses her love for romance literature. Taunted most of her life by her family, friends, and peers for her love of romance novels, Rowan has learned to hide it from everyone out of fear, judgment, or ridicule. Throughout her adolescence, romance novels “became both escapist and empowering” (63). Romance novels are a major part of her life and identity, and the pressure she feels to hide it from others demonstrates the negative impact that others’ judgment of her passion has had on her.
Fear also lies in her hesitance to let others read her writing. Having never done so before, Rowan is uncertain of someone else reading her work. When she finally lets go of this fear and shares her work with others—via Neil and again at an open-mic night—Rowan feels “a rush unlike anything [she’s] experienced, getting to read [her] words in front of people” (183). Making herself vulnerable and exposing her writing to others allows Rowan to forge empathy and connection with and among an audience that appreciates romance literature just as much as she does. Sharing her work with others gives Rowan the confidence boost she needed all along, giving her hope about her potential career as a romance novelist.
Another source of fear is Rowan’s relationship with Neil. When they grow closer during Howl, Rowan realizes she may have feelings for him. Despite acknowledging this and deciding to do something about it, Rowan suppresses her feelings, as she is ultimately afraid of what they might mean and how Neil might receive them. By the novel’s end, inspired by Neil’s own fearless leap of faith (i.e., writing a love confession to Rowan in her yearbook) Rowan finally decides to put her fear to the side and confess. Doing so is scary, but it also makes Rowan feel empowered and excited to take on whatever may come their way.
These disparate worries all stem from a common anxiety: fear of the unknown. Rowan cannot anticipate what her life at a new school in a new city will be like. She doesn’t know how her parents will react to her desire to write romance novels. She can’t control how others will perceive her writing. She doesn’t know if Neil will accept her feelings or how confessing them will affect their relationship. As the novel progresses, though, Rowan learns that conquering her fear is the only way to move forward—and while the unknown is scary, it also harbors potential and opportunity.
