Big Summer

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue and Part 1, Chapters 1-9

Part 2, Chapters 10-13

Part 3, Chapters 14-23

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Themes

The Negative and Positive Effects of Social Media

Social media impacts the wellbeing of the characters. It is used for both good and malicious intent throughout the novel.

Daphne finds a like-minded community of women who try to uplift themselves and one another through posting about body positivity. Social media, in some ways, saves Daphne. She turns to social media at her lowest point; the other plus-sized women who show off their body with pride inspire her. These social media accounts are formative in giving her the confidence to break up with Drue and begin her journey toward embracing her body. Online, Daphne sees how women reclaim bodies that they had hidden away and that were shamed by society. Daphne connects to others who experience the world like her; she realizes she is not alone. Daphne has been so accustomed to being around skinny women like Drue that it had not occurred to her that her body is not abnormal. Daphne is inspired to contribute to the online community. Social media can be equalizing: It doesn’t necessarily matter who or what you are; you can express yourself and contribute. By turning herself into a body positivity role model, Daphne is forced to commit herself to the process of loving herself. Her social media presence keeps her vocal and accountable. It also offers her small but important financial opportunities; she grows her business and social media into a potentially lucrative career.

But there are dangerous side-effects to social media. Social media is not only a space where unified and supportive communities can exist. It is also a space where people can manipulate one another to increase social standing. As much as Daphne is honest about what her body looks like on Instagram, she is dishonest about how much she worries about her looks. While she emotes confidence online, Daphne is mired down by low self-esteem. This exemplifies a larger issue with social media: lack of authenticity. Both Daphne and Drue use social media to fabricate images of wealth, confidence, and happiness. Everything they do on social media is designed to portray a well-controlled image. Their followers, especially their younger followers, grow up believing that the posts they see are the pinnacles of happiness. This skews peoples’ understanding of their selves and others. Nothing is as perfect as a posed image on Instagram, and social media can’t begin to reach the depths of human conflict and emotion. Thus, social media creates a vortex of negativity while promoting positivity.

Self-Love is a Key Component of Happiness

The characters in Big Summer suffer through self-esteem issues. Daphne’s inner conflicts are magnified through her first-person narration. The other characters also battle with shame and longing. Darshi keeps her sexuality a secret from her family; Nick worries about the traumas of his past; and even Drue, who seems to have the perfect life, suffers from loneliness and the knowledge that her friendships are mostly fraudulent.

Daphne’s low self-esteem is one of her defining traits. Her issues with her body and looks inform much of the way she moves through the world and deals with people. In school, Daphne’s low self-esteem led her to fall under Drue’s spell. Daphne believed that she could feel beautiful and confident around Drue, even though Drue had a cruel streak. Daphne listens to the negative voices telling her she must prove herself to someone like Drue, rather than to her intuition that Drue is cruel. At 19, Daphne frees herself from this toxic relationship. But that doesn’t improve her self-esteem. The damaging effect that her childhood and adolescence had on her psyche is not easily overcome. Drue’s pity for Daphne still haunts her, as does Daphne’s grandmother’s body-shaming and withholding of food. Daphne has learned self-hatred and has a hard time transforming her thinking. Self-esteem issues in this novel are cyclical, ever present, and conquerable only through time and hard work.

Daphne’s struggle with self-esteem has a direct impact on her life. As an adult, she still worries that other people see her the way Drue did: Pitiable, pathetic, sad, easily manipulated, a sidekick. When Daphne meets Nick, she is hesitant to believe that someone so handsome and kind could like her. Daphne has internalized the idea that she is unlovable because of her shape, size, looks, and socioeconomic status.

People who have shamed Daphne in her past, such as Drue or men who didn’t want to date her, struggle through their own issues with self-esteem, impacting the way that they treat others. Rather than believe that people who treat her poorly are not worthy of her attention, Daphne takes their opinions to heart and falls back on her experiences with people who have been cruel to her. This makes it difficult for Daphne to meet new people and show vulnerability to the world. She eventually learns to accept Nick’s care, but it takes her a long time to believe that he could be attracted to her. This implies that Daphne has missed out on quite a lot of happy relationships.

Weiner encourages her readers to develop self-confidence. Love of self must come before love of others, as is demonstrated through Daphne’s journey.

What Defines a Friendship?

Friendship is an important topic in Big Summer. The questions Weiner pose are about the inception of friendships and how a friendship is defined.

The central friendship under scrutiny is the relationship between Daphne and Drue. Are Daphne and Drue really friends? Can you be friends with someone who uses you? Whether Daphne wants to believe this or not, she uses Drue just as much as Drue uses her. Drue sends Daphne on errands and disposes of her when she is feeling “catty.” When they rekindle their connection as adults, Daphne discovers that Drue has reached out so she can use Daphne’s access to social media followers. This disappoints and hurts Daphne. But Daphne also uses Drue. Daphne feels more confident in Drue’s presence and enjoys the glamorous lifestyle Drue leads. With Drue, Daphne is exposed to a wealthy world without rules. Her forays into the world of the privileged excite Daphne, who sees them as an escape from her less privileged life. As adults, Daphne agrees to Drue’s wedding invitation because Daphne offers her money. Thus, Daphne isn’t exactly a good friend to Drue either. The difference lies in their intentions. Daphne genuinely wants to be a good friend to Drue because Daphne knows how important true friendship is. But as a child, Daphne is so taken away by Drue that she can’t get to Drue’s heart. Daphne believes she is Drue’s friend, but she doesn’t know much about how damaged and unhappy Drue’s home life is. Even as an adult, Daphne discovers layers to Drue that she always wanted to know. Both women keep certain parts of themselves hidden away from the other.

Their friendship seems dubious until we discover that Drue left Daphne money in her will. Drue wouldn’t have chosen Daphne to inherit money if she hadn’t genuinely loved Daphne. Weiner uses their friendship to question how friendships are developed and maintained: If on the surface, their friendship seems based on using one another, how would Drue and Daphne have been able to strengthen their friendship? And even though they used one another, surely there is a reason why they chose one another.

Darshi and Daphne’s friendship is, by contrast, less complex. Both women are intelligent, nerdy, passionate, and kind. They love one another unconditionally and support each other through life’s ups and downs. Darshi is a dedicated friend, much more so than Drue was. Daphne and Darshi’s friendship is portrayed as a more natural pairing. It is the juxtaposition between Drue and Daphne that makes their friendship an interesting and fragile one. Ultimately, Weiner encourages her reader to be open to all types of people while also being confident in the type of friendships they deserve. Friendships can save lives, but friendships can also destroy them.