Helpless
Helpless
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Lakes
Two significant lakes are present in the novel: the college town where PT lives is on the shores of a lake (this is where Henry and Campbell stage Sarah’s supposed suicide) and the cabins are located on an island on Lake Wanika (in a more remote part of the state). Lakes represent secrecy, repressed truths, and how the past lingers just below the surface. Henry and Campbell (with assistance from Corrine) pass Sarah’s accidental death off as suicide by implying she drowned herself in the lake; the nature of the death also conveniently explained why her body was never found. However, Sarah’s death continues to haunt everyone involved, leading to dramatic events more than a decade later.
When Corinne finally throws Sarah’s bones into Lake Wanika, she attempts to bury the secret once and for all. However, her elaborate plans to kill Emma and blackmail Faye into secrecy reveal that the past is never fully gone, just as objects hidden below the water’s surface can wash up any time. The depths of the lakes also symbolically mirror the human psyche: traumas and desires can be repressed, but they inevitably rise to the surface. Faye attempts to close the door on her dysfunctional dynamic with Henry, but she is drawn to him as soon as they reunite. Faye and Henry also demonstrate how their most intimate desires have been shaped by childhood events.
The Wildfires
At the end of the novel, Faye is forced to evacuate from her rental home due to encroaching wildfires in the Los Angeles area. The wildfires symbolize how passion can spiral out of control and how even carefully laid plans can go awry. In her possibly fictional account of what happened at the lake, both Faye and Henry struggle with moderating their desires for one another. This leads their meticulously curated plans to fall apart. Faye’s film pitch seemingly returns her to the status of a rational, competent, and strategic individual: she shifts from being a woman who will risk everything for the sake of passion and pleasure, to a woman calmly manipulating circumstances in order to come out on top. However, the raging fires that appear immediately after her pitch meeting suggests there may be going on. Fire (a traditional symbol of desire and passion) cannot be effectively controlled or predicted. Faye’s decision to evacuate symbolizes how there are limits to her ability to control circumstances. She is subject to forces beyond her control, such as natural disasters and the force of her desire for Henry. The symbolism of the fires counterbalances the symbolism of water (which is present throughout the chapters set at the cabin) and reveals that nowhere is truly safe for Faye. Her return to Los Angeles was intended to be a return to normalcy and stability but the fires reveal that Faye carries the seeds of destructive impulses within her.
The Tiffany Heart Necklace
The Tiffany heart necklace symbolizes the dynamics of power, dominance and control that animate Henry and Faye’s relationship. During their college relationship, Henry purchases the necklace and Faye must earn it through acts of submission. She never receives the necklace because they break up before he bestows it on her, but she begins wearing it again during their time at Lake Wanika. She wears the necklace during several of their sexual encounters and it reappears in the novel’s final scene, raising questions about whether her account was truly fictional. The necklace, with its heart-shaped pendant, alludes to love and romance, but it also the flagship product from well-known luxury brand, revealing how desire and conspicuous consumption are linked within the novel.
Faye covets the necklace because she associates it with the luxurious lifestyle of the wealthy; by purchasing it and then withholding it, Henry exemplifies how his generational wealth adds to the power dynamics enacted in their relationship. This dynamic established their connection as a game of dominance and control, where affection and material goods were inextricably linked to power. By reclaiming and wearing it at the lake, Faye reasserts her agency in their shared, dark fantasy. The necklace is a tangible link to a past that is never truly past, a reminder of a bond defined by a unique and dangerous understanding that transcends time, marriage, and morality. The presence of the necklace, decades after Faye and Henry broke up, symbolizes how he was never able to get over their relationship, despite marrying another woman. Similarly, Faye’s choice to wear the necklace in the novel’s final scene (however she obtained it) reveals that she will never be fully disconnected from Henry and the bond they share.
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