44 pages • 1 hour read
Laurie GilmoreThe Cinnamon Bun Book Store
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A 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
From Self-Doubt to Self-Acceptance
Throughout The Cinnamon Bun Book Store, protagonists Hazel and Noah doubt whether they are worthy of receiving love from the people they care about, and they frequently compare themselves unfavorably with others. Hazel’s upcoming 30th birthday is an occasion for pained introspection: “[A]ll of a sudden, with thirty sticking its proverbial tongue out at her, Hazel suddenly wondered if she’d missed out on something” (10). Though previously content with her quiet and stable life, Hazel begins to worry that she hasn’t spent her twenties the way others often do, having adventures and being reckless. Hazel feels that her character and lifestyle are deficient, as evidenced by her desire to “do something very un-Hazel-like” (10). Hazel’s desire to change herself or do things she knows she wouldn’t normally attempt suggests a growing dissatisfaction with herself. This dissatisfaction prompts her to engage in a casual relationship with Noah even though “Hazel didn’t do casual. She didn’t know how” (98). However, throughout the novel Hazel begins to learn that she doesn’t need to change herself to be someone she is happy with, especially as Noah helps her to see herself in a new light. Through her relationship with Noah, Hazel begins to learn that she is worthy, desirable, and enough just as she is and that she is capable of being both serious and fun at the same time. By the end of the novel, Hazel realizes that “it was fine that she had never sowed any wild oats or ever had any wild oats to begin with. She was thirty years old and she knew who she was […] She was allowed to be content. She was allowed to not want anything more than this” (218). By giving herself permission to want what she wants—not what she has been told she should want—Hazel sets herself up for a happier future.
Much like Hazel, Noah continually wrestles with self-doubt. Noah depends on his casual and careless reputation to downplay his insecurities, as he fears that he is not smart or serious enough for people like Hazel. He blames his family’s view of him for many of his problems, including their strained relationship, yet toward the end of the novel Noah begins to recognize that they may not be the only ones to blame. When talking with his sister about their family, she tells Noah “I don’t know what story you’ve been telling yourself about everyone being mad at you or disappointed or whatever. All any of us care about is you” (167). After this conversation, Noah begins to realize he has only told himself a story about his family’s disappointment to cover up his own fears of not being enough, and the inner voice that had always criticized him “was sounding a lot like his own” (203). Yet with Hazel’s help, Noah is able to see by the end of the novel that he is not only worthy of others, but that he should be proud of himself as he is already enough.
The Courage to Change
Hazel’s life is stuck at a standstill at the beginning of the novel, catalyzing the chain of events that follows. She struggles with the idea of change and often prefers the comfortably familiar to the excitingly new. Just as Hazel begins to think about changing her lifestyle in the opening paragraph of the book, she pivots; the narrator recounts how “[j]ust once, Hazel would like to do something very un-Hazel-like. But not right now” (10) as her attention is drawn by an out-of-place book, which it would be very un-Hazel-like to ignore. Even once Hazel decides that she must follow the clues and seek out adventure in her life, she wavers in her decisions several times, especially because she fears her changing relationship with Noah. The morning after Hazel tells Noah about the clues and asks for his help following them, she walks back her decision as she worries it sounded ridiculous to Noah. Later when they kiss again, Hazel has to reconfirm with Noah that he still wants to help her, knowing that it could make their relationship more serious. Almost every time Hazel makes a decision to change her life throughout the novel, she begins to doubt herself or lets something get in the way of her decision, such as when she nearly tells Noah about her feelings but decides not to when he reveals that he is leaving Dream Harbor.
However, by the end of the novel, Hazel learns that she needs to accept change in order to be happy. Though she is uncertain about where her relationship with Noah will go, especially if it needs to be long-distance, Hazel accepts that she needs to let this happen if she wants Noah in her life. Noah similarly struggles to accept changes like these. Like Hazel, he is comfortable with the stagnant life he leads at the beginning of the novel. Though he thinks of changing things in his life, such as his idea to turn the fisherman’s cottages into vacation rentals, Noah never seriously considers changing anything because he is unsure of his ability to live his life differently. Particularly when he begins a relationship with Hazel, he thinks that he is unable to have a serious relationship, feeling “adrift” and like “all he wanted to do was get back to his safe little island of casual sex with strangers” (11). Yet just as Noah helps Hazel to embrace change, Hazel helps Noah change many things about his life. By the end of the novel, he has reconciled with his family, begun work on the vacation rentals, and proposed marriage to Hazel, showing just how much he has changed since the beginning of the novel.
Romance as a Source of Self-Confidence
At the beginning of The Cinnamon Bun Book Store, both Hazel and Noah are uncertain of themselves and have many insecurities, especially regarding their relationship and who they are as individuals. Both often describe themselves with reference to the stereotypes that others apply to them. Hazel’s friends see her as an introverted bookworm, and she has internalized this image of herself to such a degree that she doubts her ability to do anything that doesn’t fit the mold. Similarly, Noah doesn’t do anything to disprove the rumors that present him as a lazy failure. Both feel unable to break out of their comfort zones and embrace the parts of themselves that they are not known for. Hazel worries that her community looks down on her lifestyle. As someone who is not originally from the tight-knit town of Dream Harbor, Hazel worries “it was all a joke. Or worse, some kind of Dream Harbor plot to help poor Hazel and her boring life” (95). She has often felt undesirable in relationships and believes she is boring, particularly because her friends will often tease her about her introverted demeanor. Noah is similarly convinced he is a screw-up who is incapable of doing anything serious. He doesn’t believe Hazel could be interested in him, thinking “There was no way this smart, adorable woman would want to date him. There was a reason Noah went for girls that were only here for the summer” (17).
Though Noah and Hazel both lack the confidence to change themselves or take themselves out of their comfort zones early in the novel, their romantic relationship later brings out their confidence. Noah notices the things Hazel is most insecure about and appreciates them. For example, he is particularly interested in Hazel’s love of books, thinking “She never seemed self-conscious when she was extolling the virtues of her latest read with the inhabitants of Dream Harbor” (110). Hazel also notices the things Noah is trying to hide, often praising him for qualities he is not consciously aware of. When Hazel compliments Noah on his caring nature, she wonders, “Did he not know how sweet and loving he was? How he made everyone around him happier just by being himself?” (147). By the end of the novel, Noah helps to convince Hazel that she should be confident about herself exactly the way she is, releasing her from the pressure to transform herself: “She was allowed to be content. She was allowed to not want anything more than this” (218). Noah loves Hazel just the way she is from the beginning of the novel, and by the novel’s end, “the fact that she felt the same about him was enough to make him feel like he could do anything” (226). Though both characters try to tell each other that they do not need help to be the wonderful people they are, it takes the romance between Hazel and Noah to instill confidence in one another to believe this.
