Landscape with Invisible Hand

Teen relationships in the novel represent the steep learning curve and instability of young love. Adam is attracted to Chloe from the beginning and fears embarrassing himself in front of her. Upon meeting Chloe, Adam finds that she’s empathetic, as the text depicts through her attentiveness during dinner. While Adam is painting a portrait of her, the two have the opportunity to develop romantic intimacy. The romance in their relationship results from the intimate circumstances of their families living together and of Adam using Chloe as a model, rather than from any real compatibility. Like many young relationships, Adam and Chloe’s bond is both intense and naive. They’re absorbed in the excitement and thus able to better endure their extreme poverty and to ignore the things they dislike about each other: “At that point, it didn’t even matter that Chloe and I were often standing knee-deep in piles of garbage and filth in the shadow of rich-people floating houses. We were in love” (31). Their relationship deteriorates for three main reasons: First, their families live together, so they witness each other at their worst; second, the reality show further strains their relationship; and third, their personalities are seemingly incompatible in that Adam is an introvert and prefers solitude and introspection, while Chloe is an extrovert who craves popularity and social interaction.