26 pages • 52-minute read
Dept. of Speculation
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Symbols & Motifs
Letters
The letters that the narrator and her husband write to each other are symbolic of love and connection. Shortly after the narrator discovers that the husband is having an affair, she remembers that “[t]hey used to send each other letters. The return address was always the same: Dept. of Speculation” (122). The letters were the narrator and her husband’s means of communicating at the start of their relationship. The inside joke of their customary return address underscores the intimacy of their epistolary exchanges and emphasizes their playfulness and creativity. They also used the letters to share ideas, suggested by the reference to “speculation” in the return address. The reference to a “department” of thought and ideas also implies that the couple was creating an imaginary and enchanting world together, from which they could speak honestly and openly with each other.
In the narrative present, the letters “are still in [the couple’s] house”; the husband “has a box of them on his desk” and the narrator has a box on hers (122). The couple’s decision to retain the letters over the years illustrates their desire and attempts to preserve an important era of their relationship as a couple. The narrator later tries to rekindle this loving connection when she visits her sister in London. She writes her husband a letter for the first time in years and uses the old return address—a gesture that shows her longing to reignite their previous intimacy. She is implementing their former mode of expressing affection to reestablish kinship with the husband despite their fraught dynamic.
Adultery Book
The adultery book that the narrator starts to read after discovering that her husband is having an affair is symbolic of guidance. After learning about her husband’s relationship with the girl, the narrator is desperate to make sense of why her husband sought out intimacy with another woman and her role in his loneliness. She also wants to understand what his affair means about her identity and future—both as a wife and an individual. The adultery book offers her a means of seeking these answers. Although it is “horribly titled” and she feels compelled to hide it “around the house” as if it were some other illicit substance (124), the narrator grows attached to the text. She not only reads it but also repeatedly references it throughout the latter chapters of the novel, even incorporating passages from it into her own account. She finds the footnotes about “repairing a marriage” particularly compelling (125). “In America,” the book reports in one excerpted passage, “the participating partner is likely to spend an average of 1,000 hours processing the incident with the hurt partner. This cannot be rushed” (125). This factoid inspires the narrator to think about her husband differently and to even pity the emotional work he’ll have to do to make amends with her.
In these ways, the adultery book offers the narrator direction amidst her otherwise meandering journey toward understanding, forgiveness, and reconciliation. It parallels the other writers and thinkers she incorporates into her account but offers a more explicit mode of understanding her husband’s infidelity.
Brooklyn, New York
As the narrator’s primary home throughout the novel, Brooklyn, New York is symbolic of entrapment. She lives in this borough of New York City both before and after she meets and marries the husband. The narrator enjoys living here but becomes increasingly restless in the city over time. She notices an absence of birdsong and is often frustrated that there’s nowhere to be alone—a phenomenon that becomes acute after the husband starts seeing the girl.
The narrator’s isolating circumstances in the city also become more stifling after she gives birth to her daughter. She spends most of her time at home caring for the baby on her own. Meanwhile, she’s constantly surrounded by reminders of life outside—references to life beyond the apartment windows create a contrast between the bustling metropolis outside and the claustrophobic interior of her home. The narrator’s sister encourages the narrator “to get out of that stupid city” because she believes the urban environment is suffocating the narrator and augmenting her emotional unrest (11). This is particularly true after the narrator learns that her husband is having an affair. She remains trapped in her maternal duties and marital conflicts and has fewer opportunities to enjoy the city or to exercise her creative agency.
Leaving the city is an act of self-liberation for the narrator. She moves from Brooklyn to Pennsylvania with her family to gain a new perspective on her life, her family, her marriage, and herself. The relocation frees her from her former frustrations and offers her a new way of seeing the world.
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