Criss Cross

Debbie’s necklace is a symbol of community and interconnection. The recurring images of the necklace throughout the novel convey the Importance of Friendship and Connection. The necklace is a gold chain with a medallion engraved with Debbie’s first name. At the novel’s start, Debbie wears the necklace around her neck. She also fiddles with it, twisting it around her finger, when she’s thinking. In these scenes, the necklace acts as a manifestation of both Debbie’s identity and her angst.

When the necklace falls off her neck in the rhododendron bush in Chapter 6, Debbie incidentally loosens her hold on her youthful sense of self. The necklace then travels from one Seldem adolescent to the next, falling from coats and through holes in pockets and into various public settings throughout town. The necklace’s movements appear random, suggesting that interpersonal connections are determined by fate alone. However, by the end of the novel, the necklace becomes an omniscient entity. The necklace suddenly employs a first-person narrative voice, commenting on the characters’ relationships with each other and underscoring the importance of their communal ties. This formal choice implies that there is a cosmic force which brings people together into meaningful relationships.