46 pages • 1-hour read
One Golden Summer
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Symbols & Motifs
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of substance use.
Barry’s Bay
After Nan’s hip surgery, Alice arranges for the two to spend the summer in “a blink-and-you-miss-it town on the north end of Kamaniskeg Lake” (22). Barry’s Bay symbolizes youth, freedom, and transformation in the novel. As Nan tells Alice multiple times throughout the novel, “Good things happen at the lake” (181), a mantra that underscores The Transformative Power of Place.
For Nan, Alice, and Charlie, Barry’s Bay is a repository of memories. Nan used to spend every summer there with her late husband and their friends. Alice and her siblings also spent a season there when Alice was 17—the summer when Alice discovered her love for photography. For Charlie, returning to Barry’s Bay is a way to remember his late father and mother.
Barry’s Bay also symbolizes reclaiming youthful passion. While in Barry’s Bay, Alice rediscovers her verve for life, reconnects with the artistic love of photography that she has as a teenager, and falls in love through childish adventures that rely on having carefree fun.
In Barry’s Bay, Alice is physically separated from reminders of her and Trevor’s former life in Toronto. She’s also distanced from her vocational challenges and her familial demands. The water, cliffs, trees, and air in Barry’s Bay offer her refreshment and perspective. The novel uses this setting to illustrate how spending time in the natural world can emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually heal.
Photography
Alice’s photography throughout the novel symbolizes truth. When Alice was a teenager, her candid “One Golden Summer” photograph captured a real moment of pure fun, love, and joy—convincing Alice that this is what good photography should always do. In the narrative present, while Alice has translated this youthful passion into a career, her “busiest season” is “far from the most fulfilling” (38). Instead of prioritizing her artistic vision, which is all about recording reality in its most uplifting light, Alice has “built [her] reputation on giving clients exactly what they want” (38). Doing so has compromised Alice’s beliefs in photographic truth: Alice values candid shots of models for the Swish magazine spread, but her client demands that the women be edited to meet beauty standards.
In contrast, the photos that Alice takes throughout her summer in Barry’s Bay capture only truth—in this case, revealing the depth of her connection to Charlie. Alice and Charlie have feelings for each other, but it’s only when they see Alice’s developed photos that they fully understand the scope of their love. The photos document reality of their passion in a raw form.
Motivated by a summer of taking photographs the ways she wants to, Alice also progresses on her professional artistic journey. Withdrawing from Elyse’s gallery show and talking Willa into not editing the Swish spread means finally standing up for herself and reclaiming agency that shows The Importance of Finding One’s Voice. The novel ends with Alice now only taking photos that represent her identity and point of view.
Alice’s List
The bucket list Alice makes for herself at the start of the novel is symbolic of her personal growth. Alice pens the list when she first arrives in Barry’s Bay. While watching a group of teenagers laugh, swim, and enjoy each other’s company, Alice is overcome by longing for a freer, uninhibited outlook. The list is her way of imagining what she’d “do with [her] summer” if she “were seventeen again” (55).
Some of the list items are about physical bravery: She wants to jump off a rock, backflip off the dock, attempt a water sport, ride a jet ski, sleep under the stars, and try drugs. Others are about changing her self-presentation: wearing a skimpy bikini, glittery makeup, and Heather’s green dress. A few have to do with romance and sex: Alice hopes to read a smutty novel, go skinny-dipping, and kiss a cute guy. Finally, she wants to reclaim her artistic self by taking a good photo and making bad art. All of these activities are inherently fun, exciting, or adventurous—and all engender the optimistic outlook of a teenager, transforming Alice’s controlled, responsible life into one more full of joy.
Over the course of the novel, she goes through her list with Charlie’s help. The more items she crosses off, the more Alice grows and changes for the better. The list is thus a narrative device used to track Alice’s evolution.
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