The Realizing Depictions Of Life In Beach Read By Emily Henry

A romantic read with many wearisome yet beautiful moments, the novel Beach Read redefined Emily Henry’s career, becoming one of her most popular works. The exploration into the emotional turmoil caused by the loss of one’s pictured reality serves as a wake-up call for readers. The way in which an individual responds to pivotal life can dramatically change their circumstances, leading them to experience the unexpected. Through the depiction of January, a bright-eyed writer, Emily Henry demonstrates the detrimental effects of idealizing depictions of life, especially in relation to fundamental social concepts such as love. Despite focusing primarily on romance throughout her career, January begins to doubt love, and the possibilities of "happily

With newfound emotional baggage and impending deadlines, January moves into the house her father built with his lover, attempting to re-establish certainty. The coincidental reunion with her complicated college crush, Gus provides her the chance to get out of her own comfort zone. Exploring the complexities of emotion and multi-dimensional growth is demonstrated through January’s character development throughout the novel, eventually leading to notable changes both professionally and personally. Emily Henry illustrates how certain experiences can influence one’s decisions and changes their perspective whether in a positive or negative way. The main character in Beach Read, January is the archetype of how one’s presuppositions can lead to self-destruction and a never-ending feeling of dissatisfaction; as it affects a person’s abilities to judge, deliberate and

January exemplifies this numerous times, as shown through her refusal to read her dad’s letter, overdramatization of events and search for evidence that supports her version of the story. The revelation of her father’s affair occurs when Sonya, his lover, makes an appearance at his funeral, handing January a key and a letter that her father requested for January to have. The letter is the physical manifestation of an emotional blockage, and it clogs her ability to deliberate and sympathize with her father. The image she has always had of him shifts significantly, distancing the person January thought she once knew into a villainized version of her father. She could not help but to think that: “I’d never really had him. Just like I’d never really had my ex Jacques or his coq au vin. It was just a story I’d been telling myself. From now on, it was the ugly truth or nothing. I steeled myself and stepped inside.” (Henry, 9). Her harsh judgement becomes the source of strife as she begins to deliberate her father’s past actions, weighing between good and bad. Specifically, she recalls her dad’s companionship with her mom during the time when she was fighting with cancer. His entity becomes muddled as she struggles to empathize with him prior to reading the letter. The discovery caused extreme disillusionment, as she doubts not only her father’s love, but her