Guess Again
67 pages • 2-hour read
Charlie DonleaGuess Again
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Symbols & Motifs
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual violence, rape, child abuse, child sexual abuse, child death, substance use, pregnancy termination, illness, and death.
Scars
Scars are a recurring motif in the novel that emphasizes The Lasting Impact of Trauma. Scars occur in both the physical and emotional sense throughout the narrative. Maddie has “a scar [that] trace[s] her abdomen, from her navel to her sternum, where [Francis] had inserted the knife” (65) and damage to her eye and “the remains of Bell’s palsy [from] a paralyzed facial nerve that faintly dropped the left side of her face” (66). Ethan struggles with the emotional impact of what happened to his father, visiting Francis in prison twice a year and fighting for his continued incarceration at each parole hearing. Both Maddie and Ethan continue to hold the scars from what Francis did, emphasizing the role that he continues to play in their lives—even after decades in prison.
In particular, the scar that Maddie has on her chest from Francis’s black heart tattoo underscores the theme of The Interplay Between Closure and Justice. Maddie was never able to achieve justice or closure for what Francis did to her or the other women in the Lake Michigan murders. This idea is conveyed through the scar on her chest. She attempted to remove the heart tattoo but was never able to successfully do so. Instead, she is left with a scar that serves as an emotional reminder of the events that she went through. She continues to feel the trauma of her near-death experience, an idea that is reaffirmed when Francis once again carves a heart into her chest.
Lake Morikawa
Lake Morikawa, at the start of the novel, symbolizes safety and reprieve for Ethan. Although the lake sits on Ojibwe land, Ethan’s family kept the land even as much of Lake Morikawa was returned to the tribe. As a thank you for being able to use the land, Ethan provides free healthcare to Ojibwe people several times a year and has a good relationship with them. Lake Morikawa sits on land that is unique and separate from Ethan’s everyday life. When he goes there, he is provided with both a literal and figurative escape from his life, emphasizing the theme of The Lasting Impact of Trauma. As Ethan struggles with whether to accept Callie’s case and the impending parole hearing for Francis, he goes to Lake Morikawa at the start of the novel. As he notes, “his anxiety […] drifted away” and he “was, for at least the long Memorial Day weekend, a man without a worry in the world” (21).
By the end of the novel, Lake Morikawa is tainted by Ethan’s investigation, with Francis and Harriett destroying his peace by attacking Maddie and Ethan there. When Ethan quits his job at the hospital and tries to return there, he realizes that it will never hold the value of peace and escape that it offered him before. In his time at the lake at the end of the novel, Ethan drinks alcohol to excess each day, listens to the recording of his father with Francis, and fixates on his father’s involvement in the murders. In this way, the symbolism of Lake Morikawa shifts by the novel’s end: It serves as a reminder of Francis, as well as Maddie and Ethan’s suffering, rather than an escape. When he is confronted by Governor Jones’s request for him to take up the new investigation, he acknowledges that he can no longer flee to Lake Morikawa to escape; now, he must confront his trauma to finally put it behind him.
“The Tragedy of Life Is Not That Man Loses but That He Almost Wins”
This quote by Heywood Broun is the novel’s epigraph, and it serves as a motif throughout the novel. Callie and Lindsay use the quote as the motto for their volleyball team in their childhood, as they believe it exemplifies their team’s loss in the state finals, then their subsequent return to win the title. Then, Cheryl at the Planned Parenthood clinic repeats the quote to Ethan as something that Callie said when she returned to tell Cheryl that she had chosen not to get an abortion. As Cheryl explains, Callie “meant that the baby she was carrying was her chance at winning what she really wanted out of life. And that she was so close to obtaining it, but was about to lose it” if she got an abortion (125). Through this quote, Donlea develops the theme of The Lasting Impact of Trauma. What creates “tragedy” in life is tied to what was “almost” achieved, leading to lasting trauma as a result of loss.
This quote applies to several characters in the novel, lending insight into their motivations. Lindsay still feels the loss of Blake a decade later, underscoring her lasting trauma and her desire for revenge. Throughout the novel, she orchestrates a plan that works up until the very end, resulting in her tragic death at Francis’s hands. Ethan and Maddie are constantly just moments behind solving the events of the novel—something that was intentionally orchestrated by Francis. They discover Portia in the basement and Eugenia’s body, but only after Francis leads them to it. Maddie realizes that Harriett is the woman from the transport van footage but does not do so quickly enough to stop Harriett and Francis. In the final moments of the novel, Ethan realizes that he will forever be traumatized by the fact that he “almost” stopped Francis. Francis’s near-capture and his escape motivate Ethan, forcing him back into the life of criminal investigation.
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