40 pages • 1 hour read
Today Will Be Different
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Chapters 2-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 2 Summary: “The Flood Girls”
The novel switches to Daniel Clowes’s perspective. He describes meeting Eleanor Flood at San Diego Comic Con when he is selling his art. She compliments his work, which surprises him because most people don’t like it. She then tells him that she will buy all the artwork that’s for sale. Nine years later, Dan goes to New York to see his nephew and meets Eleanor again. He visits the Looper Wash studio in SoHo and sees her artwork from the show, as well as other artwork, some of which makes fun of the Fox executives. This earns Dan’s respect. He then sees artwork about her childhood. He informs her that he needs to nominate someone for the Minerva Prize and encourages her to make her other artwork into a comic. Dan notes Eleanor’s potential as an artist, anticipating her future work.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Cracked Actor”
The narrative returns to Eleanor’s perspective. Surprised, Timby says that he did not know his mother had a sister. Eleanor quickly tells him that she does not and that The Flood Girls is a fictional take on her life. Spencer, however, says that he has met her. She admits in the narration that she did have a sister, Ivy, and wrote the graphic novel for her. She also explores her friendship with book editor Joyce Primm, who was going to get The Flood Girls published. However, Eleanor never submitted it. Eleanor drives Spencer to the sculpture park to meet with his curator. On the way, they stop at Eleanor’s apartment, and she shows him the walk-in pantry that she converted into her art studio. Spencer tries to talk with her again about Ivy, but Eleanor does not want to. They go into Joe’s office, and she is suddenly overcome with exhaustion.
Eleanor describes Ivy as beautiful, trusting, and soft-spoken. She recalls growing up together in New York City. After her mother’s illness and death, their father moved them to Aspen, Colorado, where he worked long hours and Eleanor took care of Ivy. They were close until their twenties. In Joe’s office, Eleanor notices a “bizarre” telescope on his desk and a ship in the distance. Timby tells Spencer about Piper’s bullying, and they become fast friends. The three leave the apartment together so that Eleanor can take Yo-Yo for a walk.
Spencer leaves to meet with his curator, and Eleanor expresses sympathy to Timby about Piper. After they talk about their favorite seasons, and how much Timby loves snow, he reveals that Piper bullied him due to his weight. Eleanor then reveals that she was called “Chunky” when she was younger. They meet back up with Spencer, who shows them his art, which amazes them. Eleanor and Spencer discuss photography and perseverance in art. Eleanor tells Timby that the world will be difficult but that he must persevere and take risks to accomplish his vision. Eleanor sees a yacht. She tells Timby to wait for her and gives him her purse.
Eleanor remembers when Joe was called to treat a Russian oligarch’s hand. Viktor Pasternak paid Joe a large sum of money to operate on his hand on his luxurious yacht. On the day of the operation, which was conducted in the yacht’s disco room, one of the nurses misunderstood Joe and pushed a wrong switch, dropping confetti into Viktor’s hand. Viktor had Joe removed from the yacht, and Joe has been trying to get back in touch since then. However, Eleanor realizes that she must have made this up and it likely did not happen. She then realizes that the yacht she saw was a squid boat. She calls Joe’s cellphone, and he answers, telling her that he is at the office and might be back late.
Eleanor thinks of her “Gratitude List” of annoying habits she would not have to deal with if Joe left her. These include minor pet peeves; she also wouldn’t have to hear him criticize religion. He grew up Catholic and was forced to care for six younger siblings and share everything with them because his family was encouraged to be fruitful and multiply. When Eleanor and Joe met, they bonded over their shared journey from Catholicism to atheism, and she recalls their growing relationship, including his competence and independence. After flirting with an attractive chef from the squid boat and offering him Yo-Yo, she thinks about the moments she cherishes with him and Timby that she did not expect to.
Eleanor sees Alonzo going into Costco and follows him in to apologize for cutting their lesson short. She finds him selling breaded tilapia. She engages with him politely and kindly, silently congratulating herself for accomplishing one of her tasks for the day. However, outside, Alonzo throws his apron into the trash, complaining that he finds the work dehumanizing (he is working a second job to help pay for his wife’s IVF treatments). Eleanor encourages him not to quit yet, digging the apron out of the trash and giving it back to him. She also tells him to talk to his wife before making his decision.
On the way back to Timby, she gets a call telling her that both her editor and her agent have left the publishing industry and that she might need to seek another publisher for The Flood Girls. Dejected, she hangs up and throws her phone in a nearby bait bucket. When she returns to the museum, she sees Spencer standing next to Timby, who is holding the lanyard Eleanor stole. Eleanor faints. Before she loses consciousness, Timby asks her why she has Delphine’s mother’s keys.
Chapters 2-3 Analysis
Chapter 2 introduces another perspective, that of Daniel Clowes, who nominated Eleanor for the Minerva Prize for The Flood Girls. The character provides a small amount of background into The Flood Girls’s discovery and creation, with the illustrations introducing Eleanor’s mother, father, and sister, Ivy. The introduction of Clowes’s perspective, which is never explored again in the novel, is an interesting narrative choice that approaches the graphic novel from a professional perspective but provides minimal context for Daniel’s character later in the novel. In Chapter 3, Semple uses the same narrative structure as in Chapter 1 when she returns to Eleanor’s perspective. This shift in perspective and point in time implies that Eleanor’s mind is going back to Daniel’s discovery of her work and that she is slowly allowing the past into her consciousness. This implies that she is withholding certain information in her narration. The shift back to the present in Chapter 3 shows that Eleanor has no choice but to confront her past to move forward.
The Tension Between the Self and Family becomes more significant in Chapters 2 and 3, showing Eleanor’s mission to have a better day becoming more complicated with the ambiguity around Joe’s whereabouts. The tension between her and Joe also increases the tension within herself, as she begins to blame herself for driving Joe away. She also struggles with tension in her relationship with Timby, who has trouble being open with her and finds many of her behaviors concerning. Her attempt to remember her “Gratitude List” makes her aware that she truly loves Joe and that the simple moments with him and Timby are what truly make her happy.
Three symbols support this theme in these chapters. The Flood Girls becomes a more significant symbol for this theme as the illustrations reveal more about her childhood, including her mother’s death and her father’s alcohol addiction. Throughout these ordeals, she and her sister, Ivy, were there for each other. However, they are now estranged. The “Delphine” lanyard also reappears as a symbol driving this same theme, with Timby’s discovery of the lanyard causing Eleanor to faint, making her remember Ivy and the revelation that Ivy had a daughter named Delphine. Joe’s telescope also makes its first appearance as a symbol representing Joe’s secret spiritual journey and his secrecy from Eleanor, which increases the tension and distance between them. These symbols widen the gap between Eleanor and her various family connections, setting herself at odds with the demands of the others around her whom she cares for.
Eleanor’s confrontation of her behaviors that alienate her loved ones drives her to try to bridge The Gap Between Who One Is and Who One Wishes to Be. The reveal that Timby is being bullied and that he enjoys the winter snow makes Eleanor realize that she wants to be a better person for Timby. As she races to get back to Timby at the museum, she promises, “But I can be steady. I will show you kindness and bring you snow” (113). However, her trauma over losing her relationship with her sister widens this gap, creating an uphill battle for Eleanor for the rest of the novel.
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