“Because it was Claire who always took care of them for us.”

A year and a half after Claire’s death, Meredith and her family are still finding ways that they depended on her. These realizations provide a mutual foundation for the family members to explore the theme of Learning to Be Your Own Person. The quote also foreshadows the growth that Meredith must undergo throughout the events of the novel.

“It didn’t feel right being on the Vineyard without my sister. She’d loved it most of all. It’s been too long, my dad had said at lunch, but now I also couldn’t help asking myself, has it been long enough.”

Meredith is still resisting the need to undergo the healing process and fully grieve the loss of her older sister. While her dad has started moving forward and is ready to return to family events, Meredith has not quite reached that state of readiness because she does not wish to face the reality of the new family dynamic without Claire.

“It was always about Ben, I was beginning to realize. Our relationship was uneven—never about me. Everything revolved around him.”

Ben represents everything that Meredith needs to learn this week at Martha’s Vineyard—how to be her own person, how to allow others in while standing on her own, and how to make others a priority in her life. Her recognition of her unhealthy patterns with Ben early in the week paves the way for her to begin moving forward in healing and becoming her own individual.