Magic Lessons

The color blue is a recurring motif representing protection, maternal love, and the magical heritage of the Owens bloodline. This motif is established from the novel’s opening pages, when the infant Maria is discovered “wound in a blue blanket with her name carefully stitched along the border” (3). This blanket represents the first act of love and protection in her life. Hannah Owens continues this tradition when she stitches a blue dress for the child “for good fortune and protection, and tie[s] a strand of blue wool around her ankle” (6). From the beginning, blue acts as a talismanic color, a tangible connection to the lineage of care and magic passed down through generations of Owens women.

The motif reappears consistently in objects meant to ward off harm or signify love. Rebecca gives Maria a spool of blue silk thread for creating amulets, a practical tool of their craft that also connects them as mother and daughter. Maria later wears blue ribbons and stitches blue thread into Samuel’s clothing to protect him. This persistent use of blue reinforces the idea that the Owens women’s power is rooted in a tradition of nurturing and preservation, standing in opposition to a world that seeks to harm them. The color blue becomes a quiet but constant thread weaving through the narrative, representing the lasting strength of the matrilineal bond and the protective magic born from love in a world defined by Patriarchal Oppression of Independent Women.