Study Guide

The All of It

Jeannette Haien

The All of It

Jeannette Haien
41 pages1-hour read
Fiction
Novella
Adult
Published in 1986

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Symbols & Motifs

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child abuse, sexual content, and illness or death.

Fishing and the Salmon

The motif of fishing frames the novel, representing Father Declan’s solitary spiritual struggle and his ultimate discovery of inspiration outside the confines of the church. The act of fishing in the miserable, unwelcoming weather mirrors his internal turmoil as he grapples with the moral complexities of Enda’s story. For most of the day, his efforts are fruitless; the river is “too high and wild” (3), and the fish are not moving, reflecting his inability to reconcile Enda’s life with his rigid priestly doctrines. His persistence, despite the hopelessness of the conditions, becomes a form of penance and meditation, a physical ordeal that parallels his mental and spiritual wrestling with sin, empathy, and judgment.


The salmon itself symbolizes a moment of sudden fortune and growth. Declan’s final, miraculous catch is a product of a “million-to-one chance” that occurs after he has nearly given up (126). This improbable success represents an absolution that comes from a mysterious alignment of nature, impulse, and persistence. In catching the magnificent fish, Declan experiences a transcendent joy and a release from his anguish. This event solidifies the theme of Finding Inspiration in the Natural World, suggesting that spiritual resolution can be found through personal struggle and a connection to something wild and untamable, far from the regulated world of the parish house and the pulpit.


Critically, religious parables of saving souls often position a clergy member in a seemingly impossible situation, such as taming a wild animal or finding a rare object, which represent the struggle to help the people in their care. The All of It shifts this trend, using the salmon to represent a transcendence from church dogma. The salmon inspires Declan to drive to Enda’s house to confess his feelings for her, which do not align with the Church, whereas a traditional parable would have likely had Declan save Enda through confession and penance.

The Locked Room

The locked room is the central symbol of the trauma that defines Enda and Kevin’s lives and shapes their unbreakable bond. This cold, barren space represents the cruelty and neglect of their father and serves as the catalyst for their unique partnership. Imprisoned and facing death from starvation and cold, the room becomes a space outside of normal law and morality. It is here that their physical union occurs, an act Enda insists was a desperate, life-affirming response to their imminent demise, placing it outside of “sin.” She explains that in their terror, they “took to each other […] being all we had and thinking we were to die” (52). This statement reframes their incestuous act from a transgression against God to a sacrament of survival, an idea that informs The Limits of Catholicism Regarding Transgressive Relationships.


The memory of the locked room is the core of “the all of it,” the truth that must be voiced to be understood. For Enda, recounting this horror is a powerful testimony to the extreme circumstances that necessitated their choices separate from ideas of guilt or absolution. The room symbolizes a private, harrowing reality that cannot be judged by the outside world’s moral standards. By sharing its story, Enda engages in The Power of Voicing Trauma, forcing Father Declan, and the reader, to confront the inadequacy of simple labels like “sin” when faced with the complexities of human suffering and the fierce will to live.


At the same time, the locked room was the bedroom shared by Enda and Kevin’s parents, and clearing out the room serves as a key moment in Enda’s story. Before the room became a symbol of life outside the normal bounds of socially constructed morality, it was a representation of the ideal, traditional life that Enda and Kevin’s parents shared before their mother’s death. Their father’s grief and abuses transform the room into the symbol it is for Enda, symbolically removing the possibility of a normative life for his children.

The Cottage and the Cattle-Fold

The cottage Enda and Kevin find in Roonatellin represents the chance they have at building a normal life. The cottage needs repairs and work, and this effort represents the challenge of fitting into a new town and social scene. Enda reflects that she and Kevin left prior towns because they could not adjust to a society in which everyone knew each other already. In Roonatellin, Kevin quickly establishes his competence as a worker, and he and Enda put in the work to both fix their home and their social standing.


The cattle-fold symbolizes the sanctuary and ideal world that Enda and Kevin build for themselves. When they first discover their future home, the house is a “sorrowful ruin,” but the cattle-fold is a structure of perfection, with walls that are “stout, laid solid, and every stone of it dry as a bone” (93). While the cottage represents the effort the siblings must put in to live comfortably, the structure of the cattle-fold, like their bond, is strong, ordered, and beautiful. The cattle-fold embodies the dignity and security they were denied in their childhood and had to make for themselves as a unit. It is the tangible representation of their shared vision, a space of peace that is a powerful counterpoint to the traumatic memory of the locked room.

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