Dream State
47 pages • 1-hour read
Eric PuchnerDream State
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Symbols & Motifs
Charlie’s Fall on the Ice
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness, death, and addiction.
When Charlie and Garrett meet, Charlie experiences an event immediately afterward that cements their friendship and becomes a moment that sticks with him throughout his life: In a moment of horseplay with Garrett, Charlie slips on the icy ground and then, losing control, slides into traffic and is nearly struck by an oncoming car. Garrett pulls Charlie by the arm to safety, and Charlie credits him with saving his life. As Garrett takes Charlie to the hospital, the bond between them is cemented at an unusually fast pace, and both young men are certain that they will remain committed friends for life. This action leaves Charlie feeling indebted to Garrett until Garrett “steals” Cece from Charlie. That Garrett successfully prevents Charlie from becoming seriously hurt contrasts with the events of Elias’s death: In this case, though Garrett is both the expert skier of the group and the one with knowledge of avalanches, his efforts to dig Elias out of the snow drift are futile. These two early incidents stick with Garrett for the rest of his life, constantly informing his adult sense of self: the friend he saved and the friend he could not save.
The fall is echoed throughout the novel by other falls: When Lana is an adolescent, she falls while crossing the road at Salish Lake. Like Charlie, she is nearly struck by a car. She tells no one about the incident, but the event suggests the resilience that she will need to save herself in the future, without the help of her father. Much later, it is Garrett who falls (on the dock at the lake after Cece, who has dementia, has disappeared and Garrett desperately runs off to search for her) and Lana who cleans his wounds. This suggests that Lana has become the caretaker and that Garrett need not constantly worry about saving those around him.
Charlie’s Profession
When the novel opens, Charlie is already on his way to establishing a successful career as a cardiac anesthesiologist. In this profession, he is responsible for anesthetizing patients during heart surgeries and thus bears an enormous responsibility for ensuring their safety. He is highly skilled at this job and takes pride in his knowledge and expertise. Charlie’s skill at both healing the heart and keeping it functioning is ironic, given that the heart is a foundational cultural symbol of love. Despite his fierce love for Cece, Charlie can do nothing to prevent her from falling into a love with Garrett that is greater than the one she holds for Charlie. Charlie goes on to seek other romantic relationships, and though he ultimately marries two more women, neither of these relationships is permanent. Symbolically, Charlie’s heart remains broken by Cece, and he is unable to foster real love for anyone else.
The irony of Charlie’s ability to heal the physical heart is manifested in his son, Jasper. It is Charlie himself who detects Jasper’s dangerously slow heart rate, rushing him to the emergency room and saving his life. The pacemaker that is implanted in Jasper regulates his heartbeat and keeps him alive. As Jasper’s life unfolds, shaped by substance addiction, Charlie is desperate to help him. Though Charlie’s love for his son is strong, Jasper’s addiction proves stronger, and once again, Charlie’s love is not enough to heal him. Charlie must come to terms with the fact that, though he can help Jasper’s physical body, he cannot connect with him in an emotional way.
The Margolis Cottage and Salish Lake
Though the novel takes place in several locales, the physical settings of the Margolis cottage and Salish Lake serve as grounding forces that draw Cece, Charlie, and Garrett together throughout the years. Cece, arriving at the cottage for the very first time, falls immediately in love with it. Ironically, she grows to feel at home at the cottage and lake much more than she does with Charlie. Giving up Charlie, she fears, means giving up this place as well. It is while she is swimming in the lake that she meets Garrett for the first time—an experience that changes the course of her life in ways that she could not have predicted. Indeed, she is surprised to discover that she does not want to return to Los Angeles and instead is eager to relocate her life completely to Salish, Montana. This place brings about a transformation away from the person whom Cece expected herself to be, forever linking her to Garrett and serving as a reminder of the life-altering decision she makes in ending her marriage to Charlie.
Indeed, this locale serves as the site where their adult friendship plays out, as Charlie, Garrett, and Cece attempt to maintain a close bond while also trying to reconcile the complicated feelings that swirl amid this triangle. The other college friends of Garrett and Charlie’s are also kept linked together via the cottage, as it serves as the site of numerous reunions and therefore serves as the heart of the group’s friendship.
In the heat of successive Montana summers, the characters are repeatedly drawn into the lake for refuge and comfort, and it becomes a site of collective renewal and communion, evoking images of baptism. The novel contains numerous scenes in which a large group ends the night by jumping into the lake (usually spontaneously) and enjoying a joyous moment in which they experience a deep connection to one another: This action happens at key moments, including Charlie’s bachelor party, the wedding reception of Charlie and Cece, and the college friend reunions. This act of jumping into the lake serves as a counterpoint to the motif of falling down that also recurs throughout the novel.
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