48 pages • 1 hour read
Nick HornbyHigh Fidelity
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1995A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Mixtapes
Rob makes mixtapes as a way to communicate with people. They are symbols of his struggles to communicate in a traditional manner and of his need to add a layer of abstraction to his personal relationships. Because Rob cannot express his emotions using his own words, he uses the lyrics of pop songs to tell people how he feels. He makes a mixtape for Laura when they first begin dating, and he offers to make one for Caroline when he becomes romantically interested in her. These mixtapes are symbolic gestures, representing a desire to communicate with other people and an inability to do so in any meaningful way.
Rob depends on mixtapes to communicate, but he relies on the rest of the world to speak his language. The irony of Rob’s mixtapes is that the only people who would understand the true depth of his message are those he would not see as potential romantic partners. Rob could make a tape for Barry or Dick, as these men are trapped in the same kind of conundrum. Conversely, Laura does not appreciate the time and effort Rob puts into the mixtapes. She does not understand the background or the subtle meaning every choice; she simply regards the tapes as nice gestures from a man to whom she is attracted. Laura’s position represents the majority of society, symbolizing the way in which most people are not caught in Rob’s repressed, uncommunicative position. While Rob would prefer the mixtapes to symbolize his desire to communicate, they symbolize his alienation from society as so few people share his obsession with pop music.
By the end of the book, Rob has reunited with Laura. He decides that he will make her a new mixtape, one which will feature songs that he thinks she will like, rather than songs that he thinks she should like. This subtle change symbolizes Rob’s growth. The mixtape is an attempt to give Laura what she wants, rather than an attempt to turn her into what Rob wants her to be. The change in perspective symbolizes Rob’s growth and shows how he has come to value Laura for who she is.
The Record Store
Rob runs an unsuccessful record store which caters to fellow music obsessives. The store represents the duality of Rob’s passions: Owning a record store allows him to indulge his desire to listen to and talk about music all day, while also trapping him in a world from which he struggles to escape. The small, cramped nature of the store symbolizes the way in which Rob feels imprisoned by his own career. He can barely move and there is little space for other people. In his personal life, the overreliance on music means that he struggles to maintain a relationship, and after Laura leaves he is ultimately alone. The cramped, difficult space is a symbol of Rob’s personal failings, as he struggles to bring other people into his life and cannot fit them in with all the music he refuses to give up.
Rob is not alone in the record store. Much to his disgust, he must share the space with his fellow obsessives. Dick, Barry, and the other customers share Rob’s love of pop music, to the point where they remind him of himself. The only people who can tolerate being in the dingy, cramped store are those who occupy the same mental space as Rob. He comes to see these people as extensions of his own personality flaws. He resents them because he sees so many of his faults in them but cannot give them up for the exact same reason. The clientele and the staff at the record store symbolize Rob’s self-loathing and the way in which he tolerates his failures because doing so is easier than attempting to fix himself.
However, the store also becomes a vehicle for change. Laura helps Rob realize that being a record store owner is one of his dream jobs. She also invites Marie LaSalle to play a concert in the store. Laura shows Rob that the store has a great deal of unlocked potential, just as he does. By helping Rob to unlock the potential of his store and turn his business around, Laura is showing Rob that he can also change. The store symbolizes Rob’s personal failings but also his potential, which can be realized with the help of Laura.
The Apartment
If the record store is the public symbol of Rob’s personal flaws, then his apartment symbolizes his more private, darker failings. The apartment is home to many similar symbolic expressions of Rob’s inability to communicate with the outside world. The space is small, filled with records, and—after Laura’s departure—depressing to Rob. When Laura removes her furniture from the apartment, Rob describes the empty spaces and the patches of discoloration left behind in their absence. Laura has been a part of his life for so long that her absence creates holes in his existence, just as her furniture leaves behind holes in his apartment. The discolored paint symbolizes the negative impact of her departure, revealing the problems which have long been covered up by her presence. Rob’s apartment is a depressing symbol of how important Laura was to him and how her departure eviscerates his life.
While Laura takes the furniture with her when she leaves, she does not touch the record collection. The music belongs almost entirely to Rob. As in the store, the records impose on the small space and cut down the room available to people. Rob would rather have more records than more space, to the point where his huge collection actively imposes on the space he has available and cuts down the room he has for anyone else in his life. He prefers the record collection over other people because he can exercise some measure of control over the collection. While Rob may not be able to understand Laura and other women, he understands his collection. When Laura leaves, Rob feels powerless and out of control. He decides to reorganize his record collection to reestablish control in his life.
Laura returns to the apartment and reunites with Rob. Her return to the apartment has a symbolic value, as she fills the empty space in Rob’s life. For all his talk about not needing a girlfriend and his desire to decorate and get new furniture, he finds that he prefers Laura’s presence over anything else. Although the apartment is still small and dominated by his record collection, he prefers the apartment when Laura is present. In the same way, he prefers his life with Laura to being without her.
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By Nick Hornby
