54 pages • 1-hour read
Chances Are . . .
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Symbols & Motifs
The Chilmark House
The Chilmark house on Martha’s Vineyard is a powerful symbol of the past’s persistent influence on the present, and it frequently functions as a physical anchor for the novel’s focus on The Unknowable Past and the Fallibility of Memory. This idyllic setting also holds different meanings for the various characters over time. For Lincoln’s mother, the house embodies her lost childhood innocence, and she remembers it as a place where “for three long months she had her mother’s full attention” and enjoyed a daily lifestyle “full of salt air and clean-smelling sheets” (12). Her refusal to sell the house despite Dub-Yay’s insistence stands as her one act of defiance, and by preserving the house, she safeguards the central core of her otherwise suppressed identity, clinging to a tangible piece of who she was before she shackled herself to his petty dominion.
For Lincoln, Teddy, and Mickey, the house is the site of their final weekend of youthful fellowship and the origin point of the mystery surrounding Jacy’s disappearance. When they reunite there 44 years later, the setting forces them to confront their divergent memories of the past. Notably, the realtor’s practical assessment that many buyers would consider the property to be a “teardown” (32) functions metaphorically, for just as the physical structure is weathered, the men’s recollections of the past are also unstable and in need of demolition and reconstruction before they can finally behold the truth.
Secrets and Hidden Truths
The motif of secrets and hidden truths drives much of the action in the novel, reinforcing the idea that the past is an unstable, flawed construction at best and that people are essentially unknowable. The central mystery of Jacy’s disappearance is merely the largest of many secrets that, once revealed, fundamentally alter the characters’ understanding of themselves and their relationships, and each of the men must come to grips with harsh realities that force them to redefine their view of the world. For example, Lincoln’s world is upended when his mother reveals the secret of her financial independence, a truth that transforms his lifelong perception of his parents and shatters his worldview, making him realize that “his parents […] [had turned] into strangers” (13). The motif is also powerfully embodied by Teddy, whose life is shadowed by the secret of his impotence, a consequence of a traumatic high school injury. This hidden vulnerability shapes his entire adult life, his relationships, and his guarded personality. His recurring physical and psychological “spells” add another layer to his secrecy, rendering him a strong example of the idea that undisclosed truths can often dictate a person’s choices.
Music
Music is a recurring motif that links character, memory, and the novel’s central themes of chance and fate, but it most powerfully defines Mickey, for whom rock-and-roll is the very core of his identity. Haunted by undisclosed truths about both his own past and Jacy’s, he finds his truest self on stage, a space in which he can celebrate and honor the complexities of his memories—both the triumphs and the griefs.
The motif also serves as a potent trigger for memory, evoking the shared history of the three friends. The novel’s title, Chances Are…, is taken from a Johnny Mathis song that they and Jacy sing together on their last night on the island in 1971. Lincoln recalls Mickey crooning the lyrics, “Chances are, […] cause I wear that silly grin” (65). This moment of communal nostalgia is steeped in irony given the men’s youthful confidence in their future chances when their participation in (or escape of) the Vietnam War is largely determined by the luck of the draw.
Russo also uses music as a catalyst for revelation in the novel’s climax. At the Rockers club, Delia’s probable identity as Jacy’s daughter is unveiled when she sings “Somebody to Love,” her mother’s signature song. The performance culminates with a lyric that encapsulates the novel’s thematic core about the discovery of painful secrets: “WHEN THE TRUTH IS FOUND … TO BEEEEEEEE… LIES” (188). This moment solidifies music’s role as a bridge between past and present, and it emerges as a force that is capable of collapsing time and exposing long-buried truths.
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