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Part 1: Martin, October 1998
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in I Will Always Write Back, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Kindness and Generosity
Friendship
Family
Education
Summary
Analysis
In Pennsylvania, Caitlin is surprised how formal Martin’s photo looks, but she can see him smiling beneath his serious pose. Caitlin realizes she is growing up side-by-side with Martin, and she feels like she can tell him things that she can’t tell other people.
Caitlin begins to vent about drama in her life to Martin, and he always writes back as if he understands. She doesn’t realize at first that Martin seems to be holding back about himself—she only gets scattered clues in his letters about what his life is like.
While Caitlin opens up to Martin about problems in her life, she doesn’t realize that Martin can’t do the same, at least not without drastically altering their relationship by letting Caitlin know things that he has so far tried to hide.
Themes
