The father quest
Morag knows instantly that her daughter's pilgrimage to encounter the spirit of her father and her ancestry is archetypal. She knows from experience what a rite of passage such a journey can be. Her daughter is venturing into the unknown to learn who she herself is, and her desire to understand her ancestry is a symbol for that journey toward self because she is literally a product of their existence. This journey also symbolizes whatever heritage and culture she might be able to salvage.
The dual parent motif
Morag is familiar with hero motifs. In fact, she is a famous author because her own life was archetypal. For instance, she writes about her foster parents. This fostering led her to a life of existential confusion. Who is she really? Where is she from? Is here identity already complete and whole given that she doesn't know her true parents? This is a common motif in heroic literature. One might think for instance of Superman's foster parents, or of Moses's Egyptian and Hebrew parent pairs.
The controlling husband
There is a man whose name is almost "Skeleton." He is Brooke Skelton, a person who looks inviting on the surface, but who is eventually controlling and domineering. His personality brings a kind of personal death into Morag's life. She strives to please herself or him, but his domineering nature makes her pick either slavery to his angry ways or freedom entirely. The dilemma leads to infidelity. Perhaps one way of interpreting this symbolism is that Skelton represents patriarchy and control.
The pilgrimage
When her daughter leaves, Morag is in the process of writing a novel, and she finishes the novel at the end of this book, a sort of book within a book motif. She needs her daughter's wild behavior to remind her of her own youthful passions, and then she can finish the novel. This brings to mind her own deeply human experience of youth and becoming one's self. Like her daughter, this happened in the form of a pilgrimage, but for her it was pilgrimage to her home country, Scotland.
The reunion of mother and child
When the mother and daughter are finally united, Morag and Pique talk through the disagreements. They finally seem to work through it. The resolution that they accomplish is the twin symbol for the missing father and the journey. Pique has two parents, and one is not there, and that is her journey with him, learning what abandonment looks like and how she ought to feel about it. This experience makes her more sympathetic to her mother because their personality conflicts were evidence that her mother sacrificed and provided for her.
