Why do you think Miller chose to provide the backstory of Sylvia and Adrian’s high school romance? How does their shared connection manifest throughout the novel?

Why do you think Miller chose to provide the backstory of Sylvia and Adrian’s high school romance? How does their shared connection manifest throughout the novel? Do you think Sylvia clings to this memory as a way of explaining why she feels she no longer loves Alfie?

To give the reader another side of Sylvie and a picture of the woman she felt had gotten lost along the way as her marriage progressed.

I agree with gretchenm. It shows Sylvia as a "normal" teenager.
I DID feel, however that both Adrian and Sylvia were a little overly defensive about an encounter at this time and wondered why. Did I miss something?

I think they were sensitive about their "affair" because they were at a time in their lives when life (Pomeroy, Alfie, etc.) was changing and they may have felt guilty about longing for a simpler time. Maybe?

Initially I thought it was to give Sylvia a unique perspective of the town as she straddled the bridge between being a "local' and one of the "summer people". I felt like this point of view possibility never came to any actual fruition as the character of Sylvia seemed much more focused on her own situation. So outside of giving a little insight into their awkward encounters it sort of went nowhere.