61 pages • 2 hours read
Lauren AsherTerms and Conditions
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Alcohol and Addiction
Although alcohol and addiction are only referenced a few times in the novel, these issues play a major symbolic role in the Kane brothers’ lives. Seth was an alcoholic during their childhoods, and his rages and abuse began after he turned to alcohol to cope with the death of his wife. Cal has also stepped into alcohol abuse; he is known among the family for his drinking habits, and he alludes to Declan having sent him to a rehab facility at one point.
Declan’s chapters reveal his acute awareness of this family history. When he struggles with his feelings for Iris during their wedding, he escapes to the bar and knocks back a drink quickly. As soon as he does, though, he remembers, “Alcohol doesn’t solve anyone’s problems” (121). The uneasiness he feels afterward has “everything to do with the idea of using alcohol to cope” (122). He tells himself that he is not his father, but he also steps away from the bar “before [he does] something [he] will regret” (122). Declan enjoys a glass of whisky, and he drinks mimosas during Formula 1 races to honor his mom, but he retains a strict grasp on how much and why he drinks, terrified of doing anything that may reveal an inner abusiveness.
Alcoholism serves as a reminder for Declan to be different than his father, but it also serves as a focal point for Declan when it comes to ending the cycle of abuse. Rather than learning to open himself up to others, he spends years focusing on removing his father as CEO and avoiding situations that might lead to him behaving like Seth, whether in relationships or overindulgence in alcohol. In Terms and Conditions, Declan must face his addictions to work and isolation, in addition to his potential alcohol addiction, to grow as a person.
Language
The novel uses language as a motif to reveal the protagonists’ vulnerabilities. As Declan tells Iris, “We both struggle with words in our own ways” (307). For Iris, language has been a battleground; struggling with dyslexia, she often has to work longer and harder than others to succeed, and she was often bullied for this as a child. Declan struggles with language’s emotional content: “I was always bad at expressing my feelings, way before my mom ever got sick […] She taught me how some people need a hundred words to express a single thought, while some people only need one word to share a hundred thoughts” (306).
Language expressing vulnerability is the basis for fake relationship romance plots because as the main characters grow closer, they must increasingly speak and act in ways that conflict with their emotions. The confession of love must be verbal even if it includes gifts or other gestures. This is a problem for Declan, who struggles to express any emotions verbally.
When Declan wants to tell Iris how he feels about her, he returns to the game his mother started; using a word in a foreign language defamiliarizes the emotion the word contains while simultaneously allowing Declan to express his feelings. His word yuánfèn plays into Iris’s vulnerabilities around language. When she tries to look up the word, she becomes stuck on the spelling. The feelings from her years of being bullied for her dyslexia bubble up, and she retreats. This is the couple’s first step in expressing their emotions for each other, and it leads to a chain of texts with foreign words, sometimes about their feelings and sometimes comedic and related to their situation. The foreign language and the thought involved in finding the words allows them to express themselves from a safe emotional distance when their feelings are too tender and one of them is too skittish. Eventually, they can confess their love for each other directly, in their own language.
Dreamland
In the novel, Dreamland symbolizes fantasy. The Dreamland theme parks and company are based on the concept of fairy tales and happily ever afters, but all three brothers struggle with (and often run away from) their own happy endings. The family’s reputation as purveyors of fairy tale stories and their social status leads to much social posturing; Seth used his resources to cover up his abuse, and the whole family put on an act of congeniality in public. Having experienced abuse and trauma underneath the façade of a happy family, the brothers do not believe in happily ever afters.
Iris is also skeptical of fairy tales. She did not grow up with money the way the Kanes did; in fact, as she admits to Zahra her mother could not afford to take them to Dreamland when she was a child. In Terms and Conditions, Iris moves not only from the lower-middle class to a firm position among the wealthy but also, more importantly, from a skeptical commitment-phobe to someone willing to fall in love.
In Terms and Conditions, both Iris and Declan grapple with distrust, believing the Dreamland fairy tale cannot happen in real life. Through their developing relationship, however, both learn that if they are willing to put in the work to grow and trust, then happily ever after may be within reach.
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By Lauren Asher
