52 pages • 1 hour read
Regretting You
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaThemes
The Transition from Childhood to Adulthood
Hoover begins and ends her novel from the perspective of teenage Morgan and Clara. In the final years of childhood, teenagers often struggle to balance the need for comfort and stability with their desire for independence. Hoover highlights this struggle in her exploration of both Morgan and Clara as teenagers. As Morgan and Clara learn to live for themselves, they discover that the mistakes they make in adolescence teach them invaluable lessons that usher them into adulthood.
As a teenager, Morgan feels an immense emptiness despite her close relationships with her boyfriend Chris and her sister Jenny. Neglected by their mother after their father’s death, Morgan and Jenny can only look out for each other; as the more responsible—though still immature—sibling, Morgan is essentially forced to grow up and parent her sister. She finds respite only in her friendship with Jonah, her boyfriend’s best friend and her sister’s boyfriend. Terrified of her feelings for Jonah, Morgan finetunes her habit of denying her true feelings. Her sudden pregnancy at age 17 offers her an escape from her feelings even as it shoves her further out of childhood. Years later, at age 34, Morgan still feels like her adolescent self as her intense focus on Clara has arrested her development. Jonah’s return and Chris and Jenny’s deaths remind Morgan of her need to find a purpose for living. Typically reserved for adolescence, this journey leads Morgan down a path of self-discovery that threatens to destroy her relationship with Clara. Although Morgan believes that, as an adult and a parent, she must protect Clara from the truth of her father and aunt’s deaths, she realizes that she has actually been stifling her daughter’s development. By overprotecting Clara, Morgan wanted to ensure Clara had the childhood she herself lost, but instead, she refused to respect Clara’s growing independence.
Additionally, her inability to confront her true feelings and face conflict hinders her from truly maturing. When Jonah first returns to Texas to help Jenny raise Elijah, Morgan avoids him, still resentful over his sudden departure. As they reconnect, she repeatedly rejects opportunities to acknowledge her feelings for him. As she, Jonah, and Clara work through The Nuances of Grief, Morgan steadily allows herself to acknowledge her emotions—including her attraction to Jonah, her dissatisfaction with her “predictable” life, and her anger at Chris and Jenny’s betrayal. As she strives to face her feelings for Jonah and her conflicts with Clara, Morgan learns that standing in her truth is a marker of true adulthood.
Clara follows a similar trajectory to her mother. She begins the novel as a child who seeks to rebel against her mother’s restrictions to make sense of the confusing world around her. Overwhelmed by her father and aunt’s deaths, for which she blames herself, Clara seeks comfort outside of her childhood home. She and Miller begin a complicated relationship that teaches Clara about the nuanced elements of partnerships. When her mother interferes with her relationship with Miller, Clara seeks to terrorize her mother by engaging in “adult” behaviors, such as illicit drug use, illegal drinking, and impulsive sexual encounters. Despite Morgan’s attempts to shield Clara and prevent her from making the same reckless, life-altering decisions teenaged Morgan did, her disapproval only pushes Clara further into rebellion. Clara’s actions serve as a distraction from engaging in open dialogue with her mother. Afraid to face the truth of her own guilt and vulnerability, Clara escapes from moments of connection with her mother. It is only when Miller refuses to be used as a pawn in her ploy to upset her mother that Clara begins to recognize the consequences of her actions. In the aftermath of one of her most rebellious incidents—getting drunk with her best friend Lexie—Clara recognizes her own lingering immaturity and allows herself to seek comfort from her mother. This, ironically, is a sign of maturity, and opens the door for resolution between them. When she finally engages in honest conversation with Morgan, Clara learns the truth about her father and aunt’s deaths and begins to empathize with her mother’s struggles. No longer a child, Clara recognizes the power of forgiveness and the valuable lessons learned through mistakes.
The Nuances of Grief
At the center of Hoover’s novel are the tragic deaths of Chris and Jenny. Their loss changes the trajectory of everyone else’s lives and disrupts the identities of the entire group. Throughout the novel, Hoover examines the many nuances of grief that haunt Morgan, Clara, and Jonah and propel them to reexamine their relationships and their identities.
Hoover explores grief most thoroughly through Morgan and Clara. Mother and daughter specifically feel the weight of grief as they attempt to move on with their lives with just each other. For Morgan, grief leaves her feeling aimless and paralyzed. She struggles to adapt to her new role in Clara’s life. Without Jenny to serve as a liaison between her and Clara, Morgan contends with the lack of communication between herself and her daughter. Even though all of Jenny’s advice to Clara came from Morgan, Morgan sought to protect the bond between her sister and her daughter. With Jenny gone, Morgan must grapple with her own knowledge of Jenny and Chris’s betrayal, protect Clara from the truth of the affair, and raise her daughter alone. Additionally, without Chris’s financial support, Morgan also faces the insurmountable pressure of providing for herself after years of relying on Chris.
For Morgan—and Jonah—grief is inextricably tied to betrayal. Chris and Jenny’s deaths led to the revelation of their affair, complicating the circumstances of the accident. For Morgan and Jonah, it is not simply a straightforward sorrow over their loss. In Jonah’s case, Jenny and Chris’s deaths lead to the realization that he is not the father of Jenny’s child; this uproots his entire worldview, as he resumed his relationship with Jenny to take on the role of Elijah’s father. Morgan, meanwhile, had already begun to recognize her dissatisfaction with her life on her 34th birthday. Chris and Jenny’s deaths mean she is no longer trapped in her role as Chris’s wife and Clara’s mother. Grief forces Morgan to face the internal conflicts she has been ignoring for years and to question what she wants to do with her life. It also opens the door for Morgan and Jonah to finally acknowledge their mutual affection, which they’d suppressed for years out of respect for Chris and Jenny.
For Clara, grief consumes her in the form of guilt. She blames herself for the death of her aunt and father, and part of her reckless rebellion against her mother stems from her inability to cope with the weight of her guilt. Clara also feels guilty for the life she will continue to live in Chris and Jenny’s absences. Hoover emphasizes the cruelty of death and time when Clara realizes that she’s “going to start forgetting them” (77). She dreads this natural passage of time and memory, afraid of losing the deep bonds she once shared with her aunt and father. In the aftermath of Chris and Jenny’s deaths, Clara begins her first serious relationship, dating Miller. Even in the depths of her grief, she feels a strong attraction to Miller, which makes her “feel terrible that [her] body can somehow feel this much grief, yet be sparked with a twinge of attraction as soon as Miller is in [her] presence” (78). Through the joy Clara feels around Miller (and, in parallel, the joy Morgan feels around Jonah), Hoover portrays how life continues despite the overpowering nature of grief.
Hoover compares grief to being on “an eternal roller coaster that just reached the bottom. Now it’s gonna be up and down and upside down for a long, long time. Maybe even forever” (166). The turbulent nature of the roller coaster represents the intense fluctuation of emotions that accompany grief. It is not simply a straightforward matter of “getting over” the loss of loved ones. Although life continues, those left behind are forever changed by loss, and will continue to feel the effects of grief long after the deaths have occurred. Hoover models these nuances of grief through her portrayal of Morgan and Clara specifically. As they attempt to continue their journeys through life, they recognize the impact grief has left on them and their development. Together, they are forced to forge new identities as mother and daughter without Chris and Jenny. Through the support of Jonah and Miller, who comfort mother and daughter respectively, Morgan and Clara build themselves a new support system and learn to accept true human connection.
The Complexities of Mother-Daughter Relationships
Motherhood provides a complex set of challenges that force mothers to investigate themselves. Hoover underscores these challenges through many of her works. In Regretting You, she focuses on the complexities introduced in mother-daughter relationships. Through her depiction of Morgan and Clara’s tumultuous relationship, Hoover examines the sacrifices of motherhood and illustrates the importance of communication and respect, especially during the teenage years.
For the first 16 years of Clara’s life, Morgan lives solely for the benefit of her husband and daughter. Consumed by her desire to give Clara the life she never had, Morgan relies on structure and routine to build Clara a life of dependability and support. Despite her best efforts, Morgan struggles to connect with her daughter. Morgan views Clara as an opportunity to correct the mistakes of her past, which include getting pregnant at 17 years old. Clara, feeling undervalued, resents Morgan’s intentions: “I really wish you’d stop referring to me as a mistake” (203). Here, Hoover demonstrates the specific complexities of parenting for mothers of daughters. Morgan views Clara as a younger version of herself that she wishes to protect. Her inability to see Clara as an individual causes her to restrict Clara and reject her independence. However, these attempts to grant Clara a proper childhood only push Clara further away. The more Morgan attempts to protect Clara, the greater the distance between them grows as Clara rebels repeatedly.
Their inability to communicate is exacerbated by Chris and Jenny’s deaths. Jenny, with whom Clara shared a close bond, served as a liaison between Clara and her mother. Without her to bridge the gap, Clara and Morgan must learn to communicate directly. Additionally, Morgan’s attempts to shield Clara from the truth of Chris and Jenny’s affair backfire, as Clara knows her mother is lying to her. This is worsened when she catches Morgan and Jonah kissing, causing her to assume that Morgan and Jonah have been having an affair. To assert her independence and to get revenge on her mother, Clara pursues her relationship with Miller against Morgan’s wishes.
Morgan’s disapproval leads Clara to hide her true feelings from her mother. Already overwhelmed with grief and pain, Clara covers her guilt, sorrow, and loneliness with anger and rejection. Similarly, Morgan suppresses her feelings for Jonah and conceals the truth of Chris and Jenny’s affair; however, she makes these choices in a misguided attempt to protect Clara. Although a seemingly selfless act, Morgan bars Clara from demonstrating her maturity. It is only when Morgan accepts Clara for the young adult she is and divulges the truth that Clara can finally empathize with her mother. Through their open communication, Morgan and Clara learn to see each other as individuals, which strengthens their bond.
Unlock all 52 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Related Titles
By Colleen Hoover
