Too Late

Colleen Hoover

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016

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.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-10

Chapters 11-20

Chapters 21-30

Chapters 31-40

Chapters 41-48

Chapter 49-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

The Random Sentences Game

The random sentences game begins between Luke and Sloan in class, but it is much older for her. The game, which challenges Sloan to see how randomly she can write without thinking, represents several things. It is a symbol of her cleverness but also a sober reminder of her need to be able to escape into complete distraction, protected from her thoughts. It also symbolizes her devotion to Stephen, as is evident when she explains to Luke that the game is their primary form of communication.

When Luke and Sloan begin using the white board to write sentences to each other, it takes on a more serious tone. Feeling protective and helpless, Luke writes, “Worries flow from her lips like the random words that flow from her fingertips. I reach out and try to catch them, clenching them in my fists, wanting nothing more than to catch them all” (91). Sloan responds by trying to reassure him and also to make it clear that she takes responsibility for herself: “He unclenched his fists and dropped her worries, unable to catch them for her. But she picked them back up and dusted them off. She wants to be able to hold them herself now” (96).

Stephen

Stephen is Sloan’s surviving younger brother. He lives in a care facility, where staff help him manage his life with autism. Stephen is mostly nonspeaking, although he and Sloan entertain each other with the random sentences game. Stephen represents Sloan’s selflessness and strength. She will not abandon him, even though their mother did. Carter finds it poignant that Stephen is unable to express emotions. In this way, Stephen also symbolizes Sloan’s loneliness and isolation, with Carter thinking, “The one person in this world she loves doesn’t have the capacity to express his love for her in return. No wonder she seems so lonely. She’s probably the loneliest person I’ve ever met” (169).

When Stephen touches Luke and shows that he wants him to come back, he symbolizes their growing bond.

Coconut Cake

When Asa was a child, his friend Brady gave him a piece of coconut cake his mother had made because he didn’t like it. Asa loved it, however, and the cake comes to symbolize the heartbreak of his loveless childhood. When he thinks of his ideal woman, he imagines “someone who makes [him] coconut cake” (253). He asks Sloan to make it for him because it provides the only comfort he is capable of experiencing outside of drugs and sex. When Sloan makes it for him, Asa sees it as a symbol of her love for him, failing to recognize what it really stands for: his manipulation and coercion. At the novel’s conclusion, Sloan is working on a cookbook, and she is even “including some of Asa’s favorites, like his damn coconut cake” (337). Her inclusion of the cake recipe represents her attempt to wrest back control of the cake’s symbolic meaning. Instead of signifying her abusive relationship, the coconut cake now represents her decision to help other survivors of abuse through her cookbook.