47 pages • 1-hour read
Do You Remember?
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Symbols & Motifs
Ziggy
The dog, Ziggy, represents Tess’s gut instincts and is therefore a motif that demonstrates The Reliability of Intuition as a theme. Meeting her dog every day is one of Tess’s first clues that her husband and her life aren’t as happy as they seem. When Graham introduces her to Ziggy on “Day One,” Tess thinks, “It’s like my heart has a memory of loving this dog” (28). It strikes her as significant that her love for her dog transcends her conscious memory, but she can’t—on any emotional or intuitive level—recall love for her husband. Tess’s intuition regarding Graham, despite the letters in her handwriting that reassure her of his love and loyalty, suggests his duplicity even before she has actual memories to prove it.
Furthermore, Tess understands that her choice to name Ziggy after Harry’s pet bird is a secret, personal message to herself. Just as her intuition alerts her to danger, regarding whom she can and can’t trust, so does Ziggy. Of Graham, she notes that when “he picks up the glass [of juice to bring me], Ziggy leaves my side and growls at him, baring an impressive set of teeth […]. ‘Your dog doesn’t like me.’ As he says the words, Ziggy lets out another low growl” (35). Whenever Graham brings Tess a beverage, the dog snarls at him and, eventually, bites him. Tess suspects early on that Graham is drugging her, especially when she finds a white film at the bottom of her water glass. Ziggy’s aggression every time Graham serves Tess a drink is similar to her intuition: Both reliably alert her to the danger he poses and how he poses it.
The Wedding Photo
The photo depicting Graham and Tess on their wedding day is another motif that thematically highlights The Reliability of Intuition. When Tess sees it on “Day One,” she thinks, “I look happy. And why shouldn’t I be? This is supposedly my wedding day. But there’s something else there. I look happy, but there’s something off. Something in my eyes” (21). Tess can tell from looking at her face that she isn’t truly as happy as she might look; this is later confirmed when she flashes back to her wedding day and recalls how she wanted to back out and call Harry instead. Lucy stopped her from leaving Graham at the altar and wouldn’t give Tess her phone to call Harry. Thus, when Tess married Graham, she wasn’t totally happy with the decision.
Moreover, after the glass in the picture frame shatters, the photo takes on new meaning. Tess notes that after it falls, Graham “places the cracked picture frame back on the dresser with the others—it seems oddly ominous now with the shattered glass obscuring my face, but Graham doesn’t seem disturbed by it” (21-22). The damaged glass doesn’t bother Graham, and he never replaces it, which confirms his lack of care for Tess and the marriage in general. Supporting this interpretation is the fact that he has multiple affairs during their marriage and cares more about her company than her.
Later, Tess reflects on how the broken glass affects the appearance of her face as “unsettling,” and though she knows it’s relatively trivial, “there’s something ominous about the effect: Graham and I […] with a giant crack slashing our faces in two” (280). As Tess’s intuitive sense of danger increases, despite her lack of memories, her aversion to the cracked glass over the wedding photo increases too.
Burned Breakfast and Pomegranate Juice
The pomegranate juice and burned bacon and eggs that Graham serves Tess every morning, despite his knowledge that she dislikes both, symbolize his treachery and dishonesty. He may like his bacon and eggs overdone, but Tess describes the bacon as “hammered”: practically inedible. However, Graham “even eats the burned bacon. He doesn’t seem bothered by it. There must be something wrong with his taste buds” (31).
Since Graham cooks her the same breakfast every day, he must know how to cook it without burning it; thus, burning the food is a deliberate choice that he makes to subtly torment Tess. Furthermore, every day, Graham watches as Tess feeds her bacon to Ziggy, and then he scolds her for teaching the dog to expect table scraps. This behavior indicates that he savors the opportunity to admonish her, as if she’s a child.
Next, Graham pours Tess a large glass of pomegranate juice, for which she feels an immediate repugnance. Even the smell of it feels like an assault, and she thinks, “It looks like a big old glass of blood” (35). Graham assures her every day that she loves it and typically drinks multiple glasses, but she always feels the same antipathy. She exclaims that it’s “the worst thing [she] ever tasted,” and “feel[s] like [she’s] going to throw up” (36). Again, Graham takes sick pleasure in Tess’s discomfort and uses these sneaky routines to do so while wearing the guise of a devoted husband.
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