53 pages • 1 hour read
Rebecca YarrosThe Things We Leave Unfinished
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 17-27Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 17 Summary: “Georgia”
Scarlett writes that she will never regret choosing Jameson and will wait for him where the creek bends.
In the present, Georgia manages to climb the wall at the gym, under Noah’s direction. Though she shouts at him, she is proud to realize she can still do hard things. She doesn’t trust him to belay her down, however, and in trying to climb down, she slips. He doesn’t let her fall. She is so excited at her accomplishment that she embraces him, and the attraction flares. Georgia thinks, “There was something here, and it didn’t matter how hard I fought it or how frequently we bashed heads about the book—it only grew” (216). She realizes he has earned her trust.
Chapter 18 Summary: “May 1941”
Scarlett grieves with Constance over the loss of Edward. Constance plants a rosebush at Scarlett and Jameson’s new house. She isn’t concerned about the plant dying because Constance does not believe she’ll have love again. At the station, their section leader invites them to take additional training so they can be promoted. Scarlett leaps at the chance, but Constance does not. On her shift, Scarlett plots the movements of the 71st. When the squadron moves across her section of the board again, their numbers are reduced by one. Scarlett is terrified it is Jameson, but he is waiting for her at home. Jameson grieves for the pilot they lost and acknowledges his own fear that he could lose Scarlett in a bombing raid.
Constance reports that she is going to marry Henry Wadsworth so that her parents will not lose their land, and Scarlett throws up. She realizes she is pregnant.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Noah”
Noah brings Georgia lunch and finds her going through family photo albums. He feels the sexual tension heightening between them, likening their explosive connection to matches amongst fireworks. As they look at pictures, Noah understands that Ava was never around during Georgia’s childhood, letting Scarlett raise her. Georgia says that Scarlett never returned to England.
Georgia admits that she stayed in her marriage, earning the nickname the Ice Queen, because she didn’t want to show Gran she hadn’t found an epic love, and she didn’t want to be like her mother. Georgia describes how it felt having her love choked to death. She gets a delivery addressed from Gran. The box contains a witch’s hat and Halloween candy, and Georgia explains that Gran arranged with her lawyers for Georgia to get monthly deliveries after Gran died. Georgia invites Noah to finish the book at Scarlett’s desk and shows him the manuscript. Noah detects how her style changes from the older pages to the newer ones. They nearly kiss, but are interrupted when Georgia gets a phone call from Damian.
Chapter 20 Summary: “July 1941”
Scarlett is trying to hide her five-months-pregnant belly beneath her uniform. She admits she wants a family but doesn’t feel ready. Jameson promises he will love her no matter what role she plays. Scarlett resigns and goes home to take off her uniform. Jameson understands what her job meant to her. A month later, as they shop for baby items in London, they encounter Scarlett’s parents. They express no care for Scarlett, but her father says that if their child is a boy, he can be his heir. Jameson is ready to drive to the US Embassy that minute to get Scarlett a visa to the US. He gives her a typewriter as a gift.
Chapter 21 Summary: “Georgia”
Georgia informs her agent that Damian will not be allowed the movie rights to the manuscript. She delivers candy to trick-or-treaters with Noah. Her attraction to him, she feels, is “so much more dangerous than chemistry” (265). She overhears Noah take a call with his agent. He, too, insists that Damian not be sold the movie rights, because Georgia doesn’t want it. Georgia is delighted that he supports her and decides she is done fighting her attraction to him. She kisses Noah, and they make love. Her need for him is like nothing she’s experienced before.
Chapter 22 Summary: “December 1941”
Jameson tries to coax their child to be born before he has to leave for a flight. He wants a daughter; Scarlett insists it is a boy. Constance visits and asks Scarlett about her writing. Scarlett has begun several stories but finished none. Scarlett says, “When a story is finished, no matter what kind it is, the possibilities are gone” (279). Scarlett’s water breaks, and Constance fetches the midwife. Scarlett gives birth to a healthy baby boy. Constance coddles him, identifying herself as his godmother, and promising to always protect him. Jameson bursts into the room and is delighted to meet his son, William. A fellow pilot, Howard, knocks on the door to tell Jameson that Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese.
Chapter 23 Summary: “Noah”
While Noah realizes he is in love with Georgia, she cautiously suggests they are just having a fling. She lets him see the manuscript of the first book Scarlett published, and Noah is fascinated by the stylistic differences between the early and later works. Noah finishes writing the two different endings but decides he needs more time to win Georgia over. Noah’s sister asks if he is coming home for Christmas, and he doesn’t commit. In looking at the family photo albums, Noah realizes it was Ava, not Damian, who broke Georgia’s heart. He decides he will fly Ava in for the opening of Georgia’s glasswork studio, but he needs a reason to stay in town. He calls his editor for help.
Chapter 24 Summary: “January 1942”
Six-week-old William is sleeping. Scarlett sits down to write her love story with Jameson for her son. She is happy to see Jameson when he returns but angry to learn he requested to transfer with his squadron back to the US without consulting her. She shows him the silver rattle her mother sent with a note welcoming the new Wright. Jameson asks Scarlett to promise that if anything happens to him, she will take William to Colorado. He throws the rattle in the trash.
Chapter 25 Summary: “Georgia”
Georgia is proud to host a public opening of her glass-blowing studio. She is surprised but happy when Ava arrives and thanks Noah for buying her ticket. Noah’s sister and her husband visit as well. Georgia sells every piece of glasswork she has for sale. When they return to the house, Noah gives her a birthday gift: He found Jameson’s phonograph stashed away in his cottage, where Scarlett and William lived when they first came to the States. They dance, and Noah confesses his love. The next morning, Georgia finds her mother in the office, scanning the pages of the manuscript.
Chapter 26 Summary: “May 1942”
Scarlett, now living in Ipswich, shelters with William during an air raid. When they return home, she resumes typing her love story with Jameson. Constance visits, and Scarlett sees a bruise on her face. Scarlett knows Henry hit her, but Constance insists on going through with the marriage. Jameson lands and finds his Uncle Vernon waiting for him. Vernon, also a pilot, is flying for the American Transport Command, which brings planes and supplies to Britain. Jameson asks Vernon for his help in getting Scarlett and William to the US. He begs Scarlett to agree to take William where they both will be safe, though Scarlett is heartbroken to leave him.
Chapter 27 Summary: “Georgia”
Georgia confronts her mother, who resents that she was cut out of Gran’s will and has no claim on the literary estate. Damian offered her a lot of money for film rights, and Ava says Georgia could use them to get Damian back. She demands that Noah let her see the endings, which Georgia didn’t realize were finished. When Noah admits they are, Georgia is furious. He says he kept the information from her so they could have more time together because he wanted Georgia to fall in love with him. She feels manipulated and betrayed and tells him to get out of the house. Noah tells her that Scarlett and Jameson weren’t the “epic, rare love story” (343)—it’s Noah and Georgia. He leaves.
Chapters 17-27 Analysis
These chapters cover two major points in both romance narratives: the consummation and the separation. After the many obstacles keeping the couple apart are overcome, they get to be together; generally, however, this is only the midpoint of their story. Complications to their love continue to arise, with the new obstacles often rooted in their past or in the wound that is keeping them from fully committing to the relationship. This leads to a break that feels like the darkest moment, the low point of the narrative, from which point it appears impossible to reconcile. This pattern to the romance arc is acknowledged earlier when Noah, reading Scarlett’s unfinished manuscript, realizes that the story ends at this moment of separation, and multiple endings are thus possible. Similarly, this moment ties into Scarlett’s hesitance to finish the love stories she is working on, as finishing them means the end of possibility. Both Noah and Scarlett use their writing to process their own feelings about romance, suggesting that a natural byproduct of engagement with the romance genre is a greater understanding of love itself.
Scarlett and Jameson’s love is strained more by the conflict caused by their external circumstances, where war and the imminent possibility of death with every flight, every air raid, heightens the intensity of their passion. Their consummation and commitment are ensured by the birth of their son, who inherits Scarlett’s blue eyes. Having William deepens their love for one another, but it also raises the stakes around their survival. The continuing threat of air raids forces their separation, bringing them to the moment of imminent loss with no promises around when they will be together again. Scarlett and Jameson are completely devoted in their love for one another, and the question hovering around their reconciliation is whether Jameson will survive the war. Foreshadowing within the present-day chapters hints that he doesn’t, and this anticipation of further loss heightens suspense.
Scarlett does have a character arc, to some extent, in the transformation of her roles from section plotter to wife and, finally, mother. She found independence, resilience, and pride in her position with the WAAF. However, she undergoes significant changes to her identity in her choice to be with Jameson. Married to an American, she no longer feels she is an English citizen. She is also estranged from her parents, who are not interested in her well-being but only in preserving their title, property, and name through her son as an heir. This leads her to build her identity around Jameson and William, and to lean on Constance for emotional support.
Constance, who has lost her possibility of being reunited with her love, fulfills this role of emotional support, and she proves a foil and contrast to Scarlett when she chooses to sacrifice herself in marriage to Henry Wadsworth to please their parents and protect the family’s assets. Scarlett rejected this choice, and she further rejects her birth family’s claims on her by allowing Jameson to throw away the rattle acknowledging William as a Wright, and her father’s heir, instead of a Stanton. Constance plants the rosebush to beautify Scarlett and Jameson’s home while feeling that the same hope for love and nourishment is denied her; instead, she willingly commits to a man who physically and emotionally abuses her. However, she, too, takes joy in William’s birth, committing herself to the role of godmother and protector.
Georgia’s first turning point in her character arc occurs when she realizes she can trust Noah, demonstrated in their climbing session. Thereafter she lets him into her life, sharing her family photos and Scarlett’s manuscripts, even letting him use Scarlett’s desk. At the same time, Georgia decides to resume her glass-blowing work, renting a studio and buying equipment. This introduces the theme of Discovering or Reclaiming One’s Passion, which suggests that opening oneself up to love requires a commitment to one’s truest self, thus enabling the pursuit of one’s passions. When she realizes Noah intends to stand by her by affirming her choice not to sell movie rights to her ex-husband, Georgia commits to the relationship, at least on a sexual level. The intensity of the sexual pleasure, in keeping with romance convention, signals the compatibility between the characters as life partners. Her interest in glass sculpture is a revealing metaphor for Georgia’s character, for while she can present a glittery, cold, and very sharp façade, one that shatters at betrayal, she can also be very solid and strong.
Noah, who is the first to admit to falling in love, realizes that Georgia’s wound stems from the betrayal and hurt of her mother’s abandonment. He attempts to repair this by bringing Ava to Poplar Grove and demonstrates his own commitment to the relationship by flying in his sister. Noah, who admitted earlier to the flaw of wanting control, triggers Georgia’s trust issues when she realizes he deceived her about his progress on the book. Because of her trust issues, Georgia believes that this omission signals a deeper habit of lying, like her ex-husband. This leads to the separation in the present-day story, where it looks like the couple can never recover from this betrayal. Scarlett foreshadowed this piece of the romance arc in her comment to Constance that she will use the characters’ flaws to break them and then build them back together.
Interestingly, Yarros is following the exact same strategy. She is also planting hints to support a surprise twist in the final act. The clues here are Constance planting the rosebush, taking an interest in Scarlett’s stories, and promising to protect William, and Noah observing the stylistic difference between Scarlett Stanton’s early works and her later ones, all of which signal to the revelation of Scarlett’s true identity.
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By Rebecca Yarros
