48 pages • 1 hour read
Casey McQuistonI Kissed Shara Wheeler
Casey McQuistonFiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Double Cherry
In one of her notes to Chloe, Shara includes a quotation from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which includes the image of a double cherry. Shara notes that she appreciates the metaphor and that it reminds her of her and Chloe. The double cherry represents the contradictory state of having commonalities and being close while also being divided. Because cherries resemble hearts, the metaphor connotes a deep connection between two people, one that resembles love.
The symbol also represents the relationships of other pairs in the story. Rory and Smith share a similar closeness in Rory’s status as Shara’s next-door neighbor and Smith’s status as her boyfriend. The two share a bond from when they were in middle school but are divided by circumstances that have kept them apart. Nevertheless, their feelings for each other have persisted. Likewise, Georgia and Summer also shared feelings despite their being in different crowds. Georgia and Summer worked on a project together their sophomore year, and Georgia confesses to Chloe that Summer was the person who had made her realize she “liked girls.”
Sense of Smell
The first interchapter highlights what Shara’s kiss meant to Chloe. Not only is Chloe attracted to Shara, but she is excited about having kissed her. That Shara smells like lilacs symbolizes not only the perception that Shara is perfect, but also that she is strong and complex. Perhaps more pertinent is that Chloe is fixated on Shara’s smell—the lilacs and the scent of her lip gloss—more than anything else. Smell is tied intimately with sexual attraction. Likewise, it is a “hidden” sense in that it cannot be seen or fully encompassed by words or images. Like sexual attraction, the sense of smell is an invisible, hidden energy shared between people. In a town consumed with words and keeping up appearances, the sense of smell is a symbol of what exists beyond those words and appearances.
Rory, Smith, and Chloe discussing the best and worst smells reveals not only the power of smells but that one’s affinity for or distaste for a smell is individual and unique. In this context, the sense of smell aligns with one’s “sense” of their identity. Like the sense of smell, there is no explanation underlying one’s sexual or gender identity—rather these identities are informed by a feeling or sense that is highly personal. They remain hidden until one chooses to express them.
Turducken
A turducken is a Southern dish that consists of a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey. One of Chloe’s moms who enjoys traditional Southern cuisine requests that her wife prepare a turducken when she returns from her trip to Portugal. Although Chloe curses the idea, a turducken eventually becomes a symbol to her. For Chloe, a turducken represents the complexity of experiences, characteristics, and personas that comprise a person. Although Chloe was inclined to judge others and oversimplify their identities, she eventually finds that people like Smith, Rory, and Shara have challenged the stereotypes she imposed upon them.
The symbol is most overt as it relates to Shara. Throughout the novel, Chloe vacillates between simplified versions of Shara such as the angel and the monster, but she eventually compares Shara to a turducken. When Chloe realizes she is in love with Shara, she recognizes her complexity in being a person with many personas and attributes. Chloe realizes, “Shara isn’t a monster inside of a beautiful girl, or a beautiful girl inside of a monster. She’s both, one inside of the other inside of the other” (306). She then proclaims, “I’m in love with a monster turducken” (306). Shara is imperfect, but she comprises traits of kindness and empathy as well. After all, it is Shara’s devious albeit kind nature in leaving the mysterious notes and disappearing that ultimately helps others recognize their complexity and discover their true identities.
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By Casey McQuiston
