A Sea of Unspoken Things

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of emotional abuse and death.

The note Autumn leaves for Johnny in his cabin and her pink backpack are recurring motifs that symbolize The Weight of Buried Secrets. They gesture toward the increasingly obvious truth that Johnny’s death was a murder. In this way, the note and the backpack also heighten suspense. 

Autumn’s note, in which she thanks Johnny, initially raises James’s suspicion because she sees it as possible evidence of an inappropriate relationship. Since Autumn is a vulnerable young woman from a broken home and Johnny mentored her outside the structure of school, James thinks the note confirms the town’s rumors that the two are romantically involved. Although she is wrong about this, her reaction triggers her desire to uncover the truth and propels her forward in her investigation. Ultimately, this leads her to the truth of Johnny’s murder. 

Autumn’s backpack similarly leads James to an incorrect theory that Autumn was involved in Johnny’s death. James first sees it in one of the photographs from Johnny’s last day in the gorge and wrongly assumes that Autumn was with him on the day that he died. While this does not turn out to be true, it becomes a major clue and propels James toward the truth. In the novel, secrets don’t remain buried forever, and clues like the note and the backpack become vessels for the truth.