The Metaphor of the Motherless Child
In the Chapter ‘Motherless Child,’ Strout describes Olive receiving a disastrous visit from her son and his family. While Olive has great hopes of the visit, she ends up alienating Christopher and his family. She also fears that yelling at Christopher as a child has prompted him to marry a woman who humiliates him in public. Devastated, she concludes that she raised “a motherless child.”
The metaphor of the motherless child in the novel refers to someone who feels as if they do not have a mother. This sense of absence is caused by a lack of intimacy between mother and child. Kayley Callaghan and Ann Kitteridge are also examples of motherless children. Wounded by her mother’s indifference to her, Kayley seeks love in the unsuitable form of an elderly man. Meanwhile, Ann feels grief over the death of her alcoholic mother, who was never much of a parent when she was alive.
Metaphor for the Effects of Prejudice
Strout highlights how several of the characters in the novel are victims of racial prejudice. Members of the Somali community are treated as second-class citizens, as well as Irish Americans and “Francos” (French-Canadians).
In “The Walk”, Denny Pelletier reassesses his life choices in the light of his identity as a French-Canadian. While he never objected to his childhood nickname of “Frenchie,” he realizes that he internalized other people’s expectations of his prospects. As a “Franco,” he was expected to be a low achiever at school and go on to work in the mills—a path he ended up taking without question. Denny reflects that his life has been like “a piece of bark on that river, just going along, not thinking at all.” The simile sums up the way he has allowed racial stereotypes to shape his destiny.
Metaphor for Ageing
During the novel, we see Olive experience the effects of aging. As Olive ages, she becomes increasingly reliant on other people—and this reliance on others does not sit comfortably with her. Her feeling of becoming a powerless burden is summed up when she is in the hospital. Lying in bed, she has “the sense that she [is] a huge chunk of smelly cheese and every so often someone seemed to mop her up.”
Olive’s sense that age is changing her identity is also humorously illustrated in the scene where she puts on lipstick and concludes that she looks “like a man in drag.”
Metaphor for Resilience
When Jack is stopped for speeding, he notices that his wheels have crushed hundreds of ants. Meanwhile, the survivors of the ant colony move on, looking for a new home. Later, Jack thinks about the ants, reflecting “They seemed almost heartbreaking to him, in their tininess and their resilience.”
The fortitude the ants show in the face of disaster is a metaphor for the resilience of many of the characters in the novel. Olive is the primary example, as we follow her life through many painful experiences, including rifts with her son and the loss of two husbands. There are also minor characters who seem unremarkable but have survived great adversity. Olive’s nursing aide, Betty, for example, has survived poverty and two toxic marriages, as well as the sorrow of having a brain-damaged son. Many of the characters have led difficult lives but are shown “just continuing on.” Olive, Again celebrates this spirit of resilience.
The Metaphor for the Beauty of the World
“It was autumn and the leaves had changed but were not yet falling, and the maples by the Larkin home screamed out their beautiful colors.” (‘Helped’)
Whatever the season, the beauty of the natural world is always evident in the novel. Even at times of emotional crisis, the characters cannot help but notice nature’s dazzling displays. This point is highlighted by the maple trees which stand by the Larkin’s home. Although the house has recently been the site of a grisly death (Roger Larkin burned to death there), the nearby trees continue to “scream” out their beauty. While nature is almost cruelly impervious to human tragedies, its glorious cycles provide comfort to Olive as she ages.
