63 pages • 2 hours read
Jenny HanTo All the Boys I've Loved Before
Fiction | Novel | YAA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaChapters 1-3
Chapter 1 Summary
Margot, Kitty, and Lara Jean watch a movie with Margot’s boyfriend, their neighbor and popular pseudo-member of the family, Josh. Lara Jean wants to visit Margot in Paris during Spring Break because Margot is going to university in Scotland. The sisters and Josh dream of the day they’ll reunite in Europe. While baking, Margot tells Lara Jean that she has broken up with Josh. Margot explains that their mother, who died a few years prior, advised Margot not to go to college with a boyfriend so that she could seize new opportunities. Margot does not express any sadness about her decision to break up with Josh, but Lara Jean can’t stop thinking about it.
Chapter 2 Summary
The next morning, Lara Jean and Margot are in the kitchen organizing the family for the day ahead. Lara Jean tells Margot that the family will be disappointed about her breakup, but Margot tries to avoid overly emotional conversations. Lara Jean contemplates her own complicated feelings about Margot going so far away for school. The three sisters have created a tight-knit relationship since their mother passed. Lara Jean recalls the day her mother died after slipping on the kitchen floor and hitting her head; it was Margot who took control of calling their father and 911. Since then, it has been Margot who organizes the family. With Margot preparing to go abroad, Lara Jean feels the responsibility of stepping into her shoes.
Chapter 3 Summary
The last days of summer bring with Margot’s immanent departure. The girls cherish every moment together and get ready for Kitty’s last full swim meet of the season. When Kitty asks why Josh didn’t come, Margot avoids telling her the truth. While in line for frozen custard, Margot reveals that she won’t return for Thanksgiving, leaving Lara Jean to despair over what the holiday will be like without her. Lara Jean’s safety net in Margot is rapidly changing, and Lara Jean doesn’t know what she’ll do about it.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
Chapters 1 through 3 establish the tight family dynamics of the Covey-Song family. Lara Jean, Margot, and Kitty’s identities are intimately tied with sisterhood, and calling themselves the Song sisters keeps the spirit of their dead mother with them.
Margot, the figurative mother in the group, is leaving for university in Scotland, far away from the Song girls. This departure is essential to Han’s plot: Lara Jean will not be able to grow if she continues to rely on Margot for everything. The first three chapters portray Lara Jean’s anxieties that Margot will be gone, and the family will not know how to function, which paradoxically prepares the story for exciting potential. When Margot leaves, Lara Jean will have the opportunity to develop her character; this potential is heightened by Lara Jean’s interpretations of her characterization in juxtaposition with Margot. Lara Jean sees Margot as a strong, decisive young woman who never looks backwards and only moves forward. Margot doesn’t think of the “what-ifs,” while Lara Jean can’t help but constantly wonder. With Margot gone, Lara Jean will be able to discover more about herself instead of constantly comparing herself to her big sister.
The sisters all take their familial roles seriously. They are “good girls” and work hard to make sure they don’t burden their father with more problems. They work together to keep the household running and follow all the rules. This characterization of the Song sisters is important to Lara Jean’s future development.
Lara Jean says that the only thing she’s better at than Margot is lying, a characterization which foreshadows the fabrication Lara Jean will engage in for most of the book. It is striking that, from the very beginning of the book, Lara Jean doesn’t seem to characterize herself with the kindness she gives her family. Lara Jean sees herself as lesser than Margot, an unstated inference as Lara Jean agonizes over Margot’s departure.
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