52 pages • 1-hour read
Clear
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Pistol
The pistol is a symbol of colonialist violence in Clear. The pistol first appears when John unpacks his box upon arriving on the island. Strachan gives John the pistol before his eviction assignment, claiming that it may be necessary to use it to force Ivar out of his home. John is reluctant to use the gun, even leaving it in Baillie house, demonstrating his burgeoning moral qualms about evicting Ivar. The gun remaining in Baillie house further connects it to colonialist violence, as Baillie house itself is primarily used by Strachan and other Lowrie officials and hated by Ivar and his fellow islanders.
Ivar succinctly explains the connection between the pistol and violence when he finds the gun, thinking, “[T]he pistol had always seemed like a suggestion of what could happen if they didn’t produce the required seven stones’ weight of feathers, or complained about the estate leaving them with no wrack to nourish their crops” (148). Strachan kept the pistol visible whenever he visited the island throughout Ivar’s youth so that Ivar and the other islanders would assume that it could be used against them if they couldn’t make rent or if they pushed back against the oppressive Lowrie policies. Though Ivar does not remember the gun being used, the threat of it alone was enough to keep the islanders subjugated.
Ultimately, the gun fires only once in the story: When Ivar shoots at Mary, thinking she’s Keane and has come to wrench him away from his island. Ivar’s use of the gun complicates its symbolism, as he attempts to use it against the forces of colonialist violence instead of for it.
Weaving
Weaving and knitting serve as a motif of the themes surrounding language and empathy throughout Clear. Ivar frequently knits himself clothing to keep himself warm, as he has a spinning wheel in his house. When Ivar first finds John and takes him into his house, he weaves while watching John: “[H]e sat at his spinning wheel, smoothing out and thinning the yarn, alternately looking at his work and glancing over at the bed, unable to quite shake off his fear that at any moment he might look up and find that his visitor had disappeared” (69). Though Ivar barely knows John, he still fears John leaving him alone, demonstrating the importance of the relationship between the two men from the very beginning. Ivar even uses his knitting skills to repair John’s tattered coat, showing the empathy he feels for John in the wake of John’s injuries.
Weaving also appears in the context of language, as Davies repeatedly utilizes the term “woven” to describe Ivan’s language, writing, “Woven through them were a few words John Ferguson thought he recognized—a handful that sounded like fish, peat, sheep, day, look, me, I, but delivered in an accent that made it impossible to be sure” (90). Ivar’s language is “woven” with similarities to John’s own, even if John at first struggles to pluck the threads of their similarities. As John and Ivar work together to understand each other and to create a shared dictionary, they weave their languages together until they create a language to communicate in together.
Mary’s Calotype
Mary’s calotype is a symbol of the desire for human connection. John arrives at the island with the picture in his bag. When John first obtains the picture, he tells Mary that he will keep it with him as he travels: “With the calotype safely behind the glass, he slipped it into his satchel, kissed his new wife’s hand, and said, ‘There. Now if we are ever separated, I will still have you with me, my most precious darling, at all times’” (22). John views the calotype as an extension of Mary, as a version of her that he can keep with him as he travels around Scotland seeking support for the Free Church. As John travels, he seeks to keep his connection with Mary strong, even as she’s miles away.
When Ivar finds the calotype in John’s submerged satchel, he immediately connects to it, thinking, “[T]he woman herself was as alive as anything he’d ever seen, and more alive, by far, than his memories of Jenny or his mother or his grandmother. In his whole life he had never seen anything like her” (19). Ivar thinks the image is more real to him than his memories of his family, demonstrating the depth of his desire for human connection. Though Ivar claims not to feel lonely in his isolation, his strong reaction to the calotype demonstrates his deep yearning for relationships with other people, foreshadowing his eventual connections with John and Mary.
Unlock the meaning behind every key symbol & motif
See how recurring imagery, objects, and ideas shape the narrative.
- Explore how the author builds meaning through symbolism
- Understand what symbols & motifs represent in the text
- Connect recurring ideas to themes, characters, and events