51 pages • 1 hour read
Colleen HooverLosing Hope
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013A 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
Holder’s Tattoo
Content warning: This section of the guide discusses suicide, incest, and sexual abuse of children and minors.
At the beginning of the novel, Holder obsesses over Les’s death and Hope’s disappearance, convinced that he carries the blame for not protecting either from their fates. Because of this, he feels that he doesn’t deserve love. In a letter to Les, he jokes, “I definitely need a reminder. Maybe I should get a tattoo” (45). As children, Holder gave Hope and Les, whose real name is Lesslie, the nickname “Hopeless.” When he comes back from Austin, a tattoo reading “Hopeless” is inked into his arm. The tattoo, symbolizing this early feeling of hopelessness and Holder’s belief in his unworthiness of love, highlights Holder’s character development by the end of the novel. The tattoo’s words along with the novel’s title, Losing Hope, are both refuted by the events of the novel. Once Holder and Sky have found one another again, Holder realizes that it was Hope’s father who failed her, not him. The novel ends with Holder finding both Hope and hope.
Running
Holder often feels strong emotions and the desire to act on them. At his worst, these get him into altercations, especially when he senses that his loved ones are threatened. The motif of running throughout the book connects to his physicality and Sky’s desire to block out her trauma, running away from the worst memories of her father’s abuse.
Running allows Holder to move his body and express his physicality, working out his painful emotions. Holder and Sky run during several significant moments in the book. When Holder meets Sky at the grocery store, he googles her, then googles Hope, then must run to let off steam. Sky’s presence running outside his house at the same time implies that something about their meeting stirred Sky up emotionally, making a run necessary to her as well. They sense their mutual attraction on this first run. Sky also faints for the first time, insinuating that all is not right with her. This motif builds towards Holder’s need to run away from the pain he feels and toward Sky after he discovers Les’s suicide letter. He hasn’t seen Sky in weeks, but at that moment, running to Sky’s house is the only thing that can bring him back to a feeling of safety. Hoover uses running to present a nonviolent version of physicality that can ultimately bring people towards safety and healing rather than away from it.
The Notebook
Les’s notebook is a potent symbol of the power of self-expression to heal from emotional pain but also signifies the inability of some to ever heal. The letters that Holder writes to his sister in this notebook give him comfort—aiding his grief—because he feels that he can still talk to her, expressing his emotions about her death and giving her insight into what happens in his life as if she were still alive. Once Holder finally reads Les’s suicide letter—placed in the back of the notebook—he finally forgives himself for her death. Cleaning out Les’s room at the end of the novel, Holder places the notebook in a box that will go with him to college. He may not need to write in it anymore, but he wants it with him. The notebook hence signals to the reader that Holder moves forwards equipped with the power of self-expression to continue to heal.
Over the course of the novel, the notebook shows Holder’s emotional growth and healing. However, since the notebook was given to Les by her therapist in the hopes that she might write about her feelings, it also serves as a reminder that not all traumas can be healed. When Holder finds the notebook on the day of Les’s funeral, he flips through the blank pages. It is only later that he finds out that Les did indeed use the notebook, finally, for her suicide letter. Hoover’s use of the notebook as a symbol of both the ability and inability to heal adds complexity to the narrative.
Related Titles
By Colleen Hoover
