Literary Devices in Hard Love
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
John's dad lives in Boston, his mom lives in Darlington, and we've got a bit to say about these two locations on a symbolic level over in the… drum roll, please… "Symbols" section. So if you do...
Narrator Point of View
This is John's story, so it's fitting that he be the one to tell it to us. Did you notice how it's almost like he's talking directly to us, like we're his friends? Take when he's waiting for Mariso...
Genre
Our main dude is a junior in high school, and his BFF-turned-dream girl is one year ahead of him. The two of them worry about stuff like love, sex, identity, and exploration, which are usually all...
Tone
Leave it to John to make even The Sound of Music all gloom and doom. Not familiar with the story? Let's just say that the characters successfully escape from the Nazis. Usually this calls for some...
Writing Style
John tells us exactly what he's thinking, which often means spilling out his thoughts to us in one long sentence or paragraph. Check out what he says here, after his fight with his dad: Dad usually...
What's Up With the Title?
We know the book is about love—it's called Hard Love, after all—and we also know the love that John has for Marisol is tricky because it can't be reciprocated. That's where the hard comes in. O...
What's Up With the Ending?
After Marisol ditches him to run off to New York and find herself, John reflects on his situation. He's upset about his best friend leaving, to be sure, but he gets that they can't be together, no...
Tough-o-Meter
It's easy to get hooked with John's tale of love intertwined with his search for identity. There aren't too many complex sentences or tough language to get lost in, and the plot isn't all that comp...
Plot Analysis
Boy Meets Girl We kick things off with John meeting Marisol, a complicated writer who is brutally honest in her zine but guarded in real life. This is fine and dandy with John, though, since he's a...
Trivia
Wittlinger wanted to write a novel with a teenager who was comfortable with her lesbianism. At the time she wrote Hard Love, she didn't see many gay characters on the shelves, much less ones who we...
Steaminess Rating
You might be wondering where the hot and steamy scene is that you missed. Well, sorry to disappoint, but there's not much sheet-ruffling in Hard Love, despite the title. We do get an awful lot of s...
Allusions
William Shakespeare (1.48)Nine Stories (2.72) John Berryman (2.76; 3.1; 4.1, 4.22, 4.55, 4.56; 12.13)Paradise Lost (3.1)Rapunzel (3.46)J.D. Salinger (7.69; 12.93)Romeo and Juliet...