44 pages • 1 hour read
Lynn PainterThe Do-Over
Fiction | Novel | YA | 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.
Themes
The Futility of Excessive Planning
Emilie is a character who plans everything from her present moment, future, and love life. From as early as the Prologue, Emilie claims: “I absolutely expect love in my life, but there is no way I’m going to sit around and wait for fate to make it happen. Fate is for suckers. Love is for planners” (2). She excessively plans to ensure her life goes perfectly, unlike the failed marriage between her parents that resulted in a broken family where she feels overlooked and alone more than she feels valued and seen. Emilie believes their “inability to use logic in the face of feelings” resulted in their relationship’s downfall (2). Therefore, she is determined to learn from their mistakes and only date the boys who pass her pros-and-cons list with flying colors.
Leading into Valentine’s Day, which also happens to be her intentional three-month anniversary with her boyfriend, Josh, Emilie has it planned to a T. However, the time-loop Emilie experiences continuously proves that everything going according to her plan perfectly is impossible and often blinds her to the opportunities right in front of her. Driving as carefully as possible does not prevent her inevitable car crash with Nick, and neither does taking an entirely different route. This serves as a metaphor that approaching situations with the same intent or a different route yet focused on the same destination will continue to produce the same results. This is something Emilie must learn for herself as she slowly realizes that all her careful planning, especially for things she cannot control, is futile. Attempting to thwart Josh and Macy’s coffee run kiss is also something Emilie must learn to let go of. Succeeding in doing so initially helps her ignore the issues in her relationship by allowing her to continue pretending it’s perfect. However, underneath it all, it does not change the fact that there are vital elements to their romance that are lacking, causing dissatisfaction for both characters.
After over a dozen repeats of the same Valentine’s Day with little change in the overall events of the day despite all her efforts, Emilie begins to tire of her futile planning. Instead, she embraces the day for what it could be if she lets go of her rigid expectations. Following her escape from the time loop, Emilie continues to embrace the lack of excessive planning by ignoring her planner completely, trashing her habit of making extensive to-do lists, and becoming “serious about the whole living-for-[her]self thing” (256). In doing so, she discovers she’s much happier with how her day-to-day life shapes out, feeling less weighed down by excessive planning and the rigid expectations that correspond with it.
The Reality of Imperfection
Emilie believes that perfection is the key to happiness. She adheres to the false belief that when everything goes perfectly, she should be happy. However, this is not a part of reality; reality is the fact that imperfection is unavoidable. Regarding her boyfriend, Josh, Emilie is drawn in by the fact that he “h[as] a broad outline of [his] ten-year plan” and does extremely well in school (2). Josh’s ambition and his striving toward perfection attract Emilie, even though the narrative reveals them as not a good match.
Emilie also has big plans for her future but can only afford college if she obtains the necessary scholarships. Her plan requires stellar grades and an impressive list of achievements. This is why Emilie dedicates herself to educational excellence. Since setting her plan in place, Emilie has “earned all As, thrown [her]self into writing for the school newspaper, and [she]’d taken the ACT five times even though [her] score had been exemplary the first time” (22). Though her track record is great, it is seemingly never good enough. To go to Northwestern, her dream school, she needs perfection, which she believes includes exemplary extracurriculars, strong letters of recommendation, and countless volunteer hours. Even with all those, she expresses worry that she still may fall short of achieving her goal. The amount of extreme stress Emilie puts on herself to live up to her expectations causes her unhappiness—though at the beginning of the novel, she’d never admit it to herself.
Emilie’s quest for the perfect Valentine’s Day is emblematic of her larger desire for a perfect life. The failure of her “perfect” relationship with Josh also illustrates the larger reality that imperfection is unavoidable. The repeated disappointment Emilie experiences regarding her Valentine’s Day with Josh—the cheating, the brush-off when she attempts to tell him she loves him, and the silver bracelet—all add to the theme that the pursuit of perfection can hinder happiness by setting oneself up for inevitable failure. By the end of the novel, Emilie accepts the things she cannot perfect or control. For example, Emilie can see the devastating news about the fellowship falling through in a more positive light, self-reflecting and realizing “[she’s] actually kind of glad” because she’d “really like to just chill out and relax this summer” (262).
The Importance of Authenticity
Painter explores the theme of authenticity and its importance in Emilie’s life throughout the novel. To avoid conflict with her parents, Emilie has always been a “good” kid, causing little worry to her parents. She always completed her homework, never talked back, always followed the rules, and happily went along with what everyone else wanted. However, rather than making her parents proud of her accomplishments, Emilie discovered it “made [her] forgettable” (32). In trying to be a good kid, Emilie suppressed her authenticity. By doing so, Emilie easily blends into the background which means her parents often forget about her or don’t consider how she’s feeling before they make decisions. They are incapable of understanding her because Emilie won’t share her genuine thoughts and feelings with them.
Nick is a key character who consistently influences Emilie’s shift into being more authentic. Emilie has a habit of lying or keeping to herself to make others happy. When she attempts small talk on the way to school one day, she lies about liking Metallica as a way of being polite to Nick. Calling her bluff, Nick responds with: “I wouldn’t really call pointless lying ‘polite’” (62). While Emilie believes lies are harmless and worth it when used in polite conversation, Nick values genuine connection instead. This people-pleasing habit of Emilie’s also often causes her to withhold her true emotions. Rather than stand up for herself, Emilie passively allows things to happen to her. Both Nick and Grandma Max express their disapproval of this habit. Emilie’s grandma encourages her to show the world her rage and, likewise, Nick attempts to get Emilie to give Metallica an honest try because “their rage feels good” (15). At the time, however, Emilie is not yet ready to express her true feelings—especially the ugly ones.
Emilie later practices authenticity outside of her relationship with Nick when she is open and honest with her parents about her unfavorable reaction to her father’s news. After much emotional distress, Emilie “blurted out [her] honest feelings about who [she] wanted to live with” (254), and her mom listened to her feelings. Instead of sweeping her feelings aside and allowing her parents to make a serious decision about her life without her, Emilie takes her life into her own hands by embracing open honesty with them. In expressing her true desires, Emilie can allow others to meet her needs rather than bending herself to conform to others’ expectations.
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