When I prepared to read Me Before You I already knew the ending because I accidentally stumbled across an article that was supposedly about why this person didn't want to read the book. I thought it would be a rant against romance novels and their unrealistic expectations, but it was arguing the immorality of Will's decision at the end. I know. Annoying. Who ruins the ending of a book in the first sentence of an argument and dissuades people from making their own judgement by reading it?
Anyway, I went ahead and decided to read this book even though I knew the outcome. I was prepared for emptying an entire tissue box and cursing my friend Abby for lending me such a heartbreaking novel, but I wasn't prepared for how this book would explore the complexities of all relationships.
If I'm going to discuss relationships we, of course, have to start with the relationship we have with ourselves. Louisa Clark is one of my favorite imaginary friends. Her self-discovery throughout the novel isn't thrust upon her and changes her into a different person-- it simply expands on the person she already was.
I think she's also my favorite narrator because she's the first narrator that I felt I had something in common with. Harry Potter-- too daring. Bella Swan-- too passive. You get my point. There was always something that kept me from feeling like I could ever truly relate to them. Lou was normal to me. She didn't like changing careers because working at a cafe was what she was used to. It upset her to go from interacting with a lot of people every day to begin interacting with someone who didn't want her around. I could see her existing in reality.
Her relationship with herself is also one of the most realistic I can remember reading. She may not have had any true ambitions, but I feel like Will and Lou overlooked her dream of her family being secure. It may not be the same as dreaming of one day being on Broadway, but not everyone has to want something insanely hard to reach. She just wanted the people she loved to be taken care of, and this translates later on to her relationship with Will.
Her desire not to change also makes us all have to cringe throughout her relationship with Patrick, but we'll get to that later. Louisa may have thought that Will himself changed her, but Will only helped to encourage her like all friends do. He enabled her to venture out of her comfort zone and it made her bolder. As she learned more about what life had to offer she ventured outside of her home and left a stagnant relationship with Patrick.
Me Before You also made me contemplate our relationship with our parents. The Clark and Traynor families both have difficult family dynamics throughout the novel. With the Clarks, the parents are unable to support their family. After Lou's dad loses his job, Lou becomes the sole breadwinner of the family. Lou's parents have to compromise with their traditional parental roles of taking care of their children while still supporting their children's wishes. Louisa hated working for the Traynors, and her parents knew it. This put them in an uncomfortable position because they wanted Louisa to be happy, but they also couldn't have her quit because they wouldn't have any income without her working.
The Traynors are also in an uncomfortable position because of Will's disability. When a child gets sick, a parent is able to reassure them they'll get better and comfort them. What happens when the child won't get better? What happens when your child is no longer a child? Camilla Traynor has to navigate these questions with Will when he has already made it clear that he doesn't have a desire to live. There isn't anything she can do to make it better. And her son is no longer young enough that she can dictate his choices. She can object to his desire to die, but she doesn't have an actual say making her parental authority nonexistent.
Moving on to sisters. Ah, Treena. She was the absolute worst. There is nothing more annoying than a character that has a choice to help others, but chooses to help themselves instead. When her father loses his job, Treena goes to college. So instead of contributing money, she takes money out of the scarce amount supplied by Lou. If that doesn't lead to sisterly resentment, I don't know what does.
But Lou loves her anyway. I know I could argue it's because if she didn't love her sister she would be the worst, but we all have our faults. Lou's is silent suffering/being a martyr. Treena's is being selfish. Their two largest faults seem to feed off of each other. Regardless of these faults, they still love and take care of each other.
Lou isn't going to deny her sister her chance to make something of herself and to truly take care of Thomas. Treena isn't going to tell her parents Lou's secret about Will because it would changed the way they felt about Lou's employment and involvement with Will, and it was giving Lou a purpose. Much like Little Women, they don't have to like each other all the time. They just love each other.
I don't know if Will and Louisa's relationship is the best one in the novel, but it is definitely the center of the story so I will have to try to navigate it. I'll do my best, but trying to do this is like trying to kayak through the entire Atlantic Ocean in an hour. So I'll stick with what I found important.
I guess I can narrow it all into one sentence:
What we will do for others.
This begins with Louisa working for Will even though she couldn't stand him to take care of her family. Then it morphs into both of them trying to improve the other's life. For Louisa it was making Will believe he could have a life with his handicap, and with Will it was making Louisa understand the possibilities in the unknown.
Louisa had to learn the difficulties of having Will's condition-- people staring, not looking at all, terrible accommodations-- to understand how Will was living then how to improve it. Will had to learn that even though Louisa did need some help exploring the unknown, there was nothing wrong with her loving the known.
The stickier bits of their relationship are hard to navigate outside of opinion. It made me think about what I would do if my boyfriend were to get in some kind of accident where he would become as limited as Will. He told me he would want me to let him go, but I wouldn't want to because he would still be my favorite person. However, if the tables were turned I would want him to leave me as well or wait until I let nature take its course so I wouldn't have to be dependent.
On a less serious note, let's talk about Patrick. Gosh. The only person worse than Treena is Patrick. Seriously.
While I was reading the book I told my mom that the book would be perfect if, and only if, Patrick were somehow a desirable option or if he didn't exist at all. The only argument I could make for why Louisa was with him was because she was with him. We didn't get to see anything good about Patrick at all. Everything was petty. Everything was selfish. Even when he tried it was cringe-worthy.
So this relationship made me understand my relationship with the romantic obstacle in novels. I hate them. That is all there is to be analyzed there. I know I already said it had to do with Louisa's sense of comfort, which is true, but couldn't he have at least been likable?
Gosh, I'm sad knowing I'm about to have to end this article. I don't want to leave my friends that Jojo Moyes created, and it doesn't matter how we feel about the morality of Will's decision in the end, we can still applaud Moyes for the amazing characters she created. This seemed like a world I lived in. It didn't feel like a complete romantic fantasy, and it would be nice if Louisa Clark could walk among us. And if Me Before You taught me anything it was that relationships can be more complicated than even I could guess.
