The Correspondent

Books are a recurring motif within the narrative, and while they do not directly support any of the overarching themes, they nevertheless give an insight into Sybil’s character. Initially, books are symbolic of Sybil’s curious mind as a child and how she entertains herself, as she lacks friends. Through Rosalie, however, books represent a foundational component of their friendship. Regardless of their emotional state and/or whether they are in the middle of an argument, they continue to discuss literature and recommend each other novels to read. Through Sybil’s letter-writing habit, books are a networking opportunity, as Sybil often communicates with authors whom she admires to discuss their work. Though some of these letters remain superficial in content, other instances generate a lasting and emotional correspondence, specifically between Sybil and Joan Didion. Lastly, books also have the quality of a synecdoche in the narrative, as Sybil often uses books and the partial landscapes—such as the depictions of Scotland in Gabaldon’s Outlander and the Amazon forest in Patchett’s The State of Wonder—they describe to vicariously experience countries she’s never seen and imagine adventures she’ll never live.

Sybil’s garden is a symbol within the narrative that loosely supports the overarching theme of Perpetuating Cycles of Grief. Though Sybil recurrently engages with nature on her walks, her private garden holds an emotional significance directly tied with Gilbert’s death. In the wake of his accident, Sybil’s garden was a symbolic refuge, the only space where she could find a measure of peace from the torment of her guilt, and it offered a counterpoint to her son’s death. Whereas Sybil was convinced she was to blame for Gilbert’s death, in a garden, she has the power to grow and nurture life. Like much of her interests, therefore, Sybil approached her gardening with a curated and highly structured approach, leading her to have a garden beautiful enough to, according to James, be displayed in a magazine. In her interactions with Dezi, however, her gardens take on a different meaning, as Dezi’s desecration of her flowers become a visual representation of their unresolved history and trouble her efforts to nurture new life for herself. Instead, her destroyed garden attests to the pain she did intentionally commit against the Martinelli family and the need for amends to break their cycle of grief.