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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in One Day, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Relationships and Time
Social Class
Coming of Age and the Search for Meaning
Addiction and Recovery
Summary
Analysis
Saturday, July 15, 1988. In college at Edinburgh the morning after Dexter and Emma hook up, Dexter, Emma, and Tilly have breakfast together. Emma wishes Tilly would get the hint and go away. She wants to go back to bed with Dexter but fears they're too sober now. They all debate what to do with the day, and Tilly suggest hiking up Arthur’s Seat, which Dexter has someone never done. When Tilly says that actually she’s busy and maybe Dexter and Emma should go alone, Emma is overjoyed.
The novel’s flashbacks to 1988 are a reminder of better—or at least more innocent—times in Dexter and Emma’s lives. They offset the tragedy of the novel’s final chapters and make the argument that in spite of the tragic way that Emma died, there was still something worthwhile about the time that she and Dexter spent together, even with all the flaws their relationship had.
Themes
Dexter is apprehensive about climbing Arthur’s Seat, but Emma assures him it’s not that difficult. They stop at a supermarket along the way to buy stuff for a picnic. As they begin the climb, Dexter knows he should be taking in the sights but is watching Emma. He compliments her on being so nimble. Emma makes fun of him for hiking and smoking a cigarette at the same time. Although Dexter never cared much for scenic views, he is impressed when they reach the top of Arthur’s Seat, and he wonders why he never did it before in the four years he was living in Edinburgh.
Arthur’s Seat is one of the biggest and most visible landmarks in Edinburgh, and so the fact that Dexter has never thought to climb it shows how little curiosity he used to have about the world around him. It was Emma who helped Dexter open himself up to seeing the world in different ways, and this influence lingers even in the present after Emma’s death.
Themes
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