47 pages • 1-hour read
Nightshade
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Symbols & Motifs
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and gender discrimination.
“Nightshade” Hair Dye
After Leigh-Anne Moss’s death, her corpse is identified by her distinctive streak of purple hair in the color “nightshade.” Stilwell and those closest to Moss disagree about the significance of the dye, which is named after a family of poisonous purple flowers and is the source of the novel’s title. The debate about the name symbolizes the impossibility of knowing the truth about other people. For Moss’s lover Daniel Easterbrook, the hair dye reflects Moss’s wild, untamable beauty. He describes her as “a wildflower” and connects the name of the dye with the Catalina nightshade (264), a native wildflower that grows across the island. He also interprets the purple streak as evidence of their intimacy, saying that she put the streak in as “a signal to [him] when [they] were in the club but had to keep [their] relationship […] on the down-low” (264). As a result, Nightshade became “[his] pet name for her” when he could not use her real name (164). Throughout their relationship and after her death, Easterbrook interprets Moss’s purple streak as a reflection of her beauty and a sign of her devotion to him.
For others, such as Stilwell and Moss’s former roommate, Leslie Sneed, the reference to deadly nightshade in the dye’s name is a reflection of Moss’s “dangerous” personality (195). Stilwell and Sneed repeatedly refer to the flower—and, by extension, Moss—as “poisonous” (195, 280), alluding to the misogynistic “femme fatale” trope that characterizes noir fiction from the 1930s and 1940s. Stilwell seems to accept the implied characterization of Moss as a dangerous temptress. When Stilwell interviews Easterbrook, he is sympathetic to his loss but also recalls Sneed’s warning, wondering “if Easterbrook had ever looked up nightshade on the internet and learned that the beautiful flower [i]s also a deadly poison” (264). The disparity between Stilwell’s interpretation of nightshade as a deadly poison and Easterbrook’s insistence on its beauty reflects the impossibility of defining a person after death.
The Black Marlin Club
The Black Marlin Club, a prestigious yacht club in the Avalon harbor, appears throughout the novel as symbol of the tension between Catalina Islanders and mainland Californians. The membership of the club is comprised of “moneyed families from the mainland” (55), who practice strict exclusivity because of their belief in their superiority to Catalina Islanders and most tourists. This depiction of the club membership is closely connected to the novel’s thematic interest in social identity theory, as club members overestimate their importance on the island.
The Black Marlin Club is first introduced as “an invite-only” establishment reluctant to give up information about its history or members (55). When Stilwell asks for a list of club members, manager Charles Crane refuses, insisting that the club protects “the privacy of [their] members” (72). The club insists that Stilwell and the police will need a search warrant to receive full access to the “hallowed confines” of the club (182). This repeated emphasis on secrecy and privacy suggests that the club’s exclusive nature is essential to its appeal. This exclusivity creates an insider-outsider dichotomy that makes membership even more appealing.
The novel suggests that Black Marlin Club members believe that they are superior to Catalina Island natives and long-term locals, reflecting larger tensions between Catalina and the mainland. Assistant harbormaster Tash Dano reveals that, in her experience, club members “think they’re above the rules” of the Avalon harbor and Catalina Island (89). She describes the membership as “rich, entitled guys who treat you like you’re there solely to give them what they want” (287), suggesting that club members do not believe that they are required to treat locals with respect. This belief in the superiority of the Black Marlin Club membership because of their wealth and exclusivity demonstrates the dangers of ingroup biases.
Marine Layer and Haze
Although the novel highlights many differences between Catalina Island and the mainland of Southern California, both places are introduced with a description of atmospheric anomalies obscuring the view. The marine layer surrounding Catalina Island and the haze of Long Beach symbolize the distance between the two communities. A marine layer is formed when warm, dry air flows over a cold body of water, like the Pacific Ocean, producing thick fog and mist. The novel’s opening lines describe a marine layer “thick as cotton” forming a “thousand-foot wall that shroud[s] the entrance to the harbor” (3). Stilwell imagines the marine layer as a protective barrier isolating Catalina Island from the mainland. He knows that “as soon as the layer burn[s] off, the weekenders w[ill] start arriving” (3), changing the dynamic of the island. In this introduction to Catalina, the marine layer symbolizes the island’s literal and imagined distance from the mainland.
While Catalina Island is defined by its marine layer, the mainland port of Long Beach is characterized by the presence of a constant haze. Stilwell’s view of the mainland from Catalina is “marred only by the hazy layer of smog that h[angs] over the mainland like a warning” (85). Stilwell sees “the dirty air over there” as a manifestation of the crime and corruption he left behind when he was transferred to Catalina (85).
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