49 pages • 1 hour read
Cynthia D'Aprix SweeneyThe Nest
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Illusion of Financial Security
The novel’s central conflict is the unexpected depletion of the inheritance monies that the Plumb children expect to receive upon Melody’s 40th birthday. Just months from this date, their mother’s decision to use the funds to ensure the public does not learn the details of Leo’s accident proves life-changing for some of the Plumbs. For Francie, maintaining the family’s reputation takes precedence over the financial security of her children. Importantly, all the Plumb spouses are skeptical that The Nest will ever pay out, cautioning their respective spouse not to rely on the trust coming to fruition. The novel highlights that financial “security,” for many characters, is anything but certain.
Jack and Melody have lived their lives with the assurance that the money will one day be at their disposal and will help them maintain a certain lifestyle. Jack enjoys finer things, evidenced by the particularity in his taste in cocktails in the opening chapter and his penchant for purchasing antiques for his business. Melody, too, wishes to live a specific lifestyle and is dependent on The Nest to do so. She insists to her husband that they purchase a house they cannot afford, knowing its neighborhood carries a certain image of prestige. Prestige and image are also at the forefront of her insistence that her daughters attend elite colleges (though later both admit that they would prefer more modestly priced universities). Jack and Melody thus present a false picture of themselves to the world. This is evident when the mothers of Louisa and Nora’s classmates presume Melody to be too wealthy to qualify for financial aid. Likewise, the beach house that Jack and his partner own is ultimately lost when Jack uses it as collateral against a loan. Importantly, both Jack and Melody’s actions parallel Francie’s: They all operate in a manner that allows them to maintain their social status or image, but without having the financial means to sustain it.
Bea’s and Leo’s circumstances differ from those of Jack and Melody because they have actual financial security: Both have assets—Bea’s apartment and Leo’s offshore account—that are unknown to their siblings. These funds give them a kind of leeway that Melody and Jack do not have. Though Leo knows the ethical action is to repay his siblings their share of the loan, he fears losing the security, independence, and power that his account provides him. Bea, however, is content to live modestly and within her means. This allows her to become the safety net for Jack and Melody as the novel ends, extending them each a loan. In the end, Bea demonstrates that true security comes from living authentically and within one’s current means.
The Power of Secrets
The author heightens tension in The Nest through secrets: Nearly every character keeps an important secret from another character. In many cases, the secrets involve financial dilemmas or attempts to right their respective financial situations—this is true of Melody and Jack. Both of their actions are motivated by protecting their secrets while simultaneously trying to secure their respective finances. Leo has a parallel secret involving his offshore bank. For these three characters, secrets function to maintain agency, control, and power. Ironically, each character has less power than they perceive themselves as having: Jack suspects Leo’s secret bank account just as Walker suspects Jack’s financial failings (as this has occurred in the past). Likewise, though Melody pours her efforts into securing funds for top-notch colleges for her daughters, neither desires to attend one, and they keep a joint secret from their mother by skipping their SAT classes, whose true cost Melody keeps a secret from Walter.
Maintaining peace or avoiding judgment from family members is also a motivation for secret-keeping. Jack does not reveal to his siblings that he and Walker are married because he doesn’t want to admit that he wanted a “Plumb-free” wedding. This secret, when discovered inadvertently, proves upsetting to Melody but is overshadowed by the revelation of other secrets (such as Leo’s potential continued drug use). Likewise, Nora keeps her relationship with Simone a secret from both her parents and Louisa. This is an especially uncharacteristic secret, as she and Louisa, as twins, have never kept anything hidden from one another. Louisa is paralyzed by both her knowledge of Nora’s relationship and by Nora’s not knowing that Louisa has discovered the secret. In this way, secrets create layers of complexity that breed additional tension and conflict.
Stephanie keeps her pregnancy a secret due, initially, to the unplanned and unexpected nature of it. She was initially adamant that she did not want to resume a sexual relationship with Leo. Keeping the pregnancy from him gives her time to determine what steps she will take next. As she decides that she wishes to have and raise the baby, Stephanie plans to reveal the secret to Leo—a rare instance in the novel. However, circumstances controlled by Leo himself prevent her from doing so.
The ultimate secret is Leo’s car accident and the circumstances surrounding it. Francie’s use of the money from The Nest ensures Victoria’s and Matilda’s silence, thus preserving Leo’s reputation as an upstanding professional, and by extension, the Plumb family’s reputation as well.
Satisfaction Versus Status and Success
Most characters in The Nest are driven by the pursuit of status and success, often at the expense of their happiness and satisfaction. Leo survives the car accident physically unscathed. In theory, then, he is lucky, and the event should prove to be much less detrimental than it could have been. However, the degree to which Leo and his mother value their public image and reputation creates the novel’s central conflict. By draining the inheritance to buy the silence of both Matilda Rodriquez and Victoria, Francie is certain she will preserve the Plumb family’s social image as one of high standing. In an ironic twist, however, Leo’s professional acclaim has long been in decline, leading many characters to wonder whether his involvement with a younger woman would have proven newsworthy at all. Leo, like his mother, has become accustomed to defining his success in terms of social status and prowess. When he perceives his reputation to be at risk, he fears the loss of what is most meaningful to him.
Jack and Melody define success similarly. Both prioritize living in neighborhoods with elite reputations and associating with similar people. Melody has set her sights on sending her twins to prestigious private universities, believing state universities to be beneath her family’s status. Jack, too, in his work as an antiques dealer, moves in elite circles. Both define success as possessing wealth, which in turn, brings admiration from a specific social group. However, neither Melody nor Jack can truly afford to maintain the lifestyle needed to reside in their economic brackets. When they lose their share of The Nest, both fear the loss of the lifestyle they have strived to fit into. Leo, too, must come to terms with the reality that his professional career has fizzled, and thus, he no longer possesses the kind of social cache he has been accustomed to. In the end, both Jack and Melody realize they had sacrificed their happiness in the pursuit of status. Leo, on the other hand, has financial security, but without social or family connections, there is no one left in his life to give his wealth the external significance or prestige he once enjoyed.
It is Bea and Stephanie who, in the end, achieve both happiness and success. Though both live in modest homes, these homes are within their respective means and are pleasant and comfortable. Neither woman has a job fraught with a large degree of prestige, nor great fame or wealth. However, they find enjoyment and satisfaction in the work they do and the lives they lead. Living within their means and moving beyond the concern of what others think of them, as Bea does when she shakes off the insults of her peers that she overhears at a party, ultimately prove to be more effective means to obtain success.
