The Forest of Hands and Teeth

“The ocean, Mary, the ocean!…So beautiful the ocean…The water, the waves, the sand, the salt!… It consumes me.”

Mary begins her narrative by mentioning the ocean, a major motif in the novel. Although it is a force she has never seen, she thinks of the ocean often. When her mother, who is about to die and return as an Unconsecrated mentions the ocean in this scene, it is unclear whether she feels that the ocean or the infection is the consuming presence, and this deliberate ambiguity contributes to the nebulous feel of the novel’s dystopian setting. Even though the most recent photographic evidence of the ocean is generations old, as Mary’s great-great-great-grandmother was the last to see the sea, Mary still feels driven to travel beyond the confines of her village in search of the ocean, and this passion will steer her decision-making.

“No one remembers where the paths go. […] We only know that one points to the rising sun and the other to the setting sun.”

Through a gradual reveal of expository details, Mary explains the village’s ignorance about the circumstances that led to the initial spread of the undead across the world so long ago. Her description of the village itself is equally gradual, and it is not until her imminent commitment to the Sisterhood that Mary finally reveals the existence of the two fenced, forbidden paths into the Forest, one running east and the other west.