60 pages • 2 hours read
Katharine McgeeAmerican Royals
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2019A 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
Beatrice’s Engagement Ring
Jewelry often holds special significance in royal societies and in works of fiction. Engagement rings are powerful symbols across genres, and this significance spills into the real world. American Royals combines these elements—royalty, fiction, and the real world—by focusing on Beatrice’s engagement ring: or rather, her rings. The engagement ring that Teddy gives to Beatrice represents propriety, duty, and privilege. However, Connor’s engagement ring symbolizes raw love and dedication despite impropriety.
When Beatrice proposes to Teddy, the interaction is strange and awkward. In a world full of traditional gender roles and courtly etiquette, men are typically the ones to propose to their romantic partner, but in Beatrice’s case, her high rank above Teddy forces her to propose to him. Beatrice isn’t comfortable with this role reversal, and the conversation feels more like a business transaction. Beatrice recalls that “normally when the heir to the throne proposed, he brought his fiancée a ring from the royal vault,” but points out that “every heir to the throne up till now had been a man” (238). Beatrice finds herself in the strange position of offering Teddy the chance to go through her family’s heirloom jewelry and pick out a ring for her: yet another challenge to tradition and the typical fairytale romance. Teddy chooses a beautiful ring that glows and glitters in the sunlight, and the ring’s intense, practical beauty symbolizes how attractive and natural the pairing between Beatrice and Teddy might seem to the outside world. However, Beatrice can’t stand the ring: It’s “too cold, too heavy, its enormous weight almost too much to bear,” and “every night Beatrice slip[s] off that ring the instant she was alone” (296). The ring might be proper and befitting a future queen, but the implication of what it means—a loveless political marriage—is repulsive to Beatrice. Teddy might have chosen the ring because it fit Beatrice’s personal style, but to her, it “[feels] like it belonged to someone else and had been given to her by mistake” (296). Of course, Beatrice’s feelings make sense: The ring isn’t truly hers, but it has been borrowed from the Crown Jewels, which belong to the royal family, not Beatrice the person.
Connor’s ring, however, isn’t beautiful or made of precious stones. In fact, it’s not a real ring at all. When Connor learns that Beatrice is marrying Teddy, he removes her diamond engagement ring and “using [a] Sharpie, he trace[s] a thin loop around the skin of Beatrice’s finger, where her ring had been” (272). Connor’s ring is nothing more than ink, but his proposal to her is full of passion and chivalry: He gets down on one knee and asks for her hand in marriage, disregarding the protocol for proposing to a future queen. Unlike Teddy, Connor has “no lands, no fortune, no title,” and “all [he] can give [her] is [his] honor, and [his] heart” (272). Although Beatrice has to refuse Connor in the name of duty, she cannot bring herself to erase the Sharpie mark on her skin. She uses Teddy’s engagement ring to conceal the ink on her finger, which symbolizes how her engagement with Teddy is a cover-up to hide her true feelings for her Revere Guard. The ring is a beautiful, appropriate mask to conceal a shameful secret. When Beatrice decides to call off her wedding, she shows Connor the proof that she still loves him: Weeks after he draws the ring on her finger, Beatrice “slid[es] the diamond engagement ring off her finger, revealing the line of Sharpie inscribed beneath” (351). Connor is shocked to see that the ink is still there, and Beatrice admits that she “touched it up [her]self” (351). Unlike the diamond engagement ring that Beatrice removes as soon as she can each night, she maintains the ink ring to demonstrate her love for Connor and her determination to make things work with him. The diamond engagement ring might represent marriage, but the Sharpie ring represents true love in the face of adversity.
Telluride and Montrose
Chapters 14-18 take place in the snowy mountainside towns of Telluride and Montrose. Nestled amongst the Rocky Mountains, these ski towns attract tourists year after year with picturesque scenery and abundant slopes. For the Washingtons, Telluride holds a special significance: The Washingtons have been coming here for years to celebrate birthdays, bachelorette parties, honeymoons, and most importantly, New Year’s Eve. Daphne notes that Telluride “represent[s] [the Washingtons’] chance to get away, to close their doors and briefly let down their guard” (163) in a world where their lives are under constant scrutiny. In the novel, Telluride and Montrose represent new beginnings, rebellion, and dramatic changes for the characters.
For Daphne, Telluride is full of memories of her relationship with Jefferson. As his long-term girlfriend, Daphne has spent the last few New Year’s with the Washingtons in their private home in the mountains, and she remembers that “the ski house [is] where Jefferson first told Daphne that he loved her” (162). When Daphne returns to Telluride without an invitation, she is determined to rekindle the spark she once had with Jefferson. On New Year’s Eve, however, Daphne is stunned when Jeff tells her that he has moved on and is dating someone else. Daphne’s entire existence has been wrapped around Jefferson, and in the face of his rejection, “her future seem[s] to flatten out before her, shadowing and blurring at the edges until it [leads] nowhere at all” (199). Once Daphne starts to entertain the thought that she might have lost Jefferson forever, her behavior shifts significantly. Although she has always been careful about drinking in public, she starts taking shots with Samantha (whom she has never gotten along with before), and she swings toward reckless flirting and risqué moves on the dance floor. In Telluride, Daphne allows her true self to come out for just one night, and she “never [knew] how utterly liberating it was, to drink until the edges of reality felt liquid and blurred” and to “do something delightfully illicit, just to prove that none of it mattered” (201). Although she ends up refocusing on her mission to get Jefferson back at the end of Chapter 18, for just a few hours, Telluride allows Daphne to indulge in a magical world of what-ifs and, like the Washingtons, she lets her guard down in this little mountain town.
Although the romantic tension between Beatrice and Connor has been simmering for over a year, their diversion into Montrose brings these tensions to a head. Telluride might be where the Washingtons cut loose, but in American Royals, Telluride also represents family expectations for Beatrice. She notes that because Teddy has been invited to Telluride this year, she knows she will have to endure “forced intimacy” (169) with him while her parents watch them closely. Meanwhile, in a small, secluded cabin on the edge of Montrose, Beatrice and Connor bear their hearts to one another: Connor tries to reason with Beatrice and with his own heart by reminding himself that Beatrice is “completely off-limits to someone like [him],” and that he “swore a sacred, unbreakable oath that [he] would protect and serve the Crown to my dying breath” (175-76), which forbids him from fraternizing with the future queen. Connor knows how he should behave in Telluride, but Montrose is hours away from the royal family, and in this small cabin, the princess and her guard give way to temptation. Here, away from the prying eyes of the media and the expectations of the royal family, Beatrice and Connor are simply allowed to be themselves: a boy and a girl in love. As she holds Connor, Beatrice prays that “the little white flakes never settled, that she could stay here forever, outside time itself” (177), because as long as they are in Montrose, she and Connor can be together. Even after the roads clear and they continue on to Telluride, Montrose has changed Beatrice and Connor’s relationship forever.
Court and Ranks
Where there is money and privilege, there will always be people comparing their money and privilege to others. English Noble Titles, on which McGee bases the fictional American monarchy in American Royals, is a system that enables families with power to stay in power, all while climbing the ranks and constantly searching for opportunities to trade up for a higher status. For some families, this system is a game to be played, while for others, it is an unfortunate obstacle to grapple with. The American court and the rankings therein represent the human obsession with power, fame, and greed and the culture of exclusivity that comes with being in the inner circle of society.
From a young age, Daphne Deighton knew her parents were obsessed with their baronetcy title. Even though the Deightons live in a nice home and are welcome at court gatherings, they still hunger for more. The Deightons are among the lowest-ranking of the nobility, and because Daphne is only a third-generation baroness, her family still feels the sting of being “new nobility” in a court full of well-established families and titles that have existed for hundreds of years. Court is a game to Daphne: “the greatest game in the world, the only game that truly mattered: the game of influence at court” (59). During court gatherings, Daphne works overtime to charm and manipulate others with her beauty and dazzling clothes: Over time, she has allowed the pressures of court to shape her into a version of herself she hardly recognizes. Nina believes that the court, with its fixation on beauty and propriety and societal hierarchies, “reward[s] people like Daphne—cold, brutal people who [do] whatever the hell they [want] and never [look] back” (359). The pressure to keep up in court drives Daphne to turn her back on love as well as her true self, and although she loves Ethan, she knows that she “want[s] a crown, which might very well be the only thing in the world Ethan [can’t] give her, no matter how wealthy or powerful he [becomes], no matter how much he scheme[s] or struggle[s] or succeed[s]” (335). Court blurs people’s perception of reality, and Daphne, who has grown up on the fringes of court, believes that she is worthy of the highest prize court can offer: a prince and nothing less.
For Nina, the court represents a world of unattainable beauty that will always be out of her reach. Unlike Daphne, who attends court functions because of her family’s title, Nina has only gained access because of her friendship with Samantha. Although Nina is “the furthest thing in the world from a social climber,” she is “constantly aware of” things like “money, titles, and her lack thereof” (255). Nina’s family might work for the government, but she will never have a title and the prestige that goes with it, which makes her feel like she doesn’t belong in Sam and Jeff’s world. Although Sam and Jeff both insist that they don’t care about titles and money and they like Nina exactly the way she is, Nina points out that these things “‘don’t matter’ to [the twins] because [they] have them” (255). For someone like Nina, who is genuine, kind, and not worried about personal appearances, court is a shark tank full of people who will always look down on her, or worse, they will look straight through her. While college gives Nina a chance to find peace and build her own identity away from the Washingtons, court reminds her that this world full of glitz and glamor “[isn’t] her world, and it never [will] be” (359).
