47 pages • 1 hour read
Kennedy RyanThis Could Be Us
Kennedy RyanFiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A 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
All About Love by bell hooks
Bell hooks (1952-2021) was an American scholar, feminist, and activist. She wrote several books on race, class, and gender and the intersection of Black identities, and her work has been influential in the development of literary theory, intersectional feminism, and critical race theory. In All Above Love (2000), hooks studies love as a concept and practice, examining the ideal of romantic love in mainstream culture and analyzing love in other forms. The book focuses in particular on the importance of self-love, or respect for oneself, which is not to be confused with narcissism, or an unhealthy prioritizing of self over the well-being of others. All About Love analyzes compassion as the basis of intimacy and love as a source of connectedness with others.
In the novel, hooks’s book becomes a symbol of Soledad’s quest for self-knowledge. It serves to outline and clarify her own understanding of love, confirming the importance of learning about herself and offering encouragement that she can eventually heal from Edward’s betrayal. Reading the book is deeply relatable for Soledad:
My hands can’t keep up with my heart while I try to highlight all the truths dotted throughout these pages. It’s like a treasure map I’ve found at exactly the right time. bell hooks is reaching through the years to tell me I should take responsibility in all areas of my life, to believe I have the capacity to reinvent my life and shape the future around my well-being (202).
The book also represents connection. Soledad inherited her copy from her mother and is reading it alongside her sisters and friends. When she sees Cora Garland’s copy of the book and suggests that they read it together, it becomes a symbol of compassion and caretaking. As Soledad is expanding her online community, she shares the book with her followers. This prompts Judah to obtain his own copy; he reads it as a way to understand what she’s going through. When Soledad finds Judah’s book and sees that his bookmark is the grocery list he had delivered when the FBI froze her family’s assets, she understands Judah’s wish to be with her. The book thus symbolizes Soledad’s journey toward self-acceptance and romantic love, as well as standing in for the inheritance of love she gains from her mother and the support she has from her family and friends.
The Machete
The machete symbolizes Soledad’s inner strength in the face of Edward’s betrayal; as part of Soledad’s inheritance from her mother, it also represents the resilience of generations of women in Soledad’s family. The machete has “a mother-of-pearl handle and surprisingly sharp blade” (78). It is strong, like Soledad herself: “It has split coconuts and sliced through pork shoulders” (78). Soledad knows that the women of her Puerto Rican family used this machete to forage for food and prepare meals, “and the weight of it in [her] hands somehow connects to the weight in [her] heart, threads through [her] soul like the eye of a needle” (78). When she is smashing Edward’s things, the tool becomes healing: “The machete is not just a line of steel, but a lineage of it. I use it now to cut down the insecurities, the shame, the hurt that will eat me alive if I let them” (99). Using it gives Soledad the courage to free herself from Edward and heal from the wounds that his infidelity and crime have inflicted on her. The scar that the machete leaves on her palm when she cuts open the cabinet holding Edward’s precious Larry Bird Celtics jersey becomes a marker of her transformation from a wife unhealthily devoted to Edward into a powerful mother standing up for herself and her daughters.
Soledad’s Recipes
Soledad’s recipes, some of which are included in the back of the book, signify her talent for nurturing and hospitality. They are also a way that she expresses her multi-ethnic identity and heritage. Soledad devotes her energies to providing her family with healthy, lovingly prepared meals; caring for the house; and offering logistical support for the girls’ classrooms and extramural activities. She and Judah first connect over the poor food supplied at the CalPot Christmas party; when Soledad speaks of carne guisada as her comfort food, she is revealing herself to Judah by sharing her Puerto Rican heritage, her ability to cook, and her love of caretaking. The recipes often come from her heritage, such as her traditional Puerto Rican pasteles or peach cobbler. Sometimes, they are representations of her personality, like the gooey brownies she makes for her daughters that exemplify her mothering. Eventually, she learns how to monetize her culinary instincts, such as the vinaigrette that goes viral. Finally, food becomes a way to welcome new people into her family, as she learns how to make the mac and cheese that Judah’s sons will eat. Food symbolizes the love, connection, and creativity through which Soledad rebuilds her life.
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