54 pages • 1-hour read
The Identicals
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Symbols & Motifs
The Islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard
The novel’s foremost symbol is the geographical and cultural dichotomy between Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. The two islands represent the deep schism within the Frost family and the divergent identities of the twin sisters, Tabitha and Harper. This symbolism is foundational to Hilderbrand’s thematic engagement with The Power of Place in Shaping Identity. The opening chapters personify the islands, establishing them as distinct characters with opposing values: Nantucket is portrayed as Eleanor and Tabitha’s world—structured, stately, and traditional—while Martha’s Vineyard reflects Billy and Harper’s existence, depicted as laid-back and rebellious. This stark contrast frames the sisters’ estrangement as both a personal conflict and a clash of cultures embodied by their respective homes.
Hilderbrand structures her narrative around this symbolic opposition. The novel’s inciting conflict is the island swap, a literal trading of identities that forces each sister to navigate the other’s world. Hilderbrand establishes the symbolic stakes immediately, framing the islands as “two distinct nations, each with its own ways, its own means, its own traditions, histories, and secrets” (5). This personification underscores the idea that identity is not innate but profoundly shaped by one’s environment. The island swap becomes the primary mechanism for the twins’ self-discovery and a critical first step toward understanding one another.
The islands also symbolize the parental divide that created the initial fracture between the sisters. After the divorce, Eleanor claimed Nantucket and Billy claimed the Vineyard, effectively dividing their world and their children. The family’s emotional geography is mapped onto these two locations, with specific objects like the elegant Roxie dress representing Nantucket’s formal legacy and Billy’s practical gold Omega watch symbolizing the Vineyard’s working-class heritage. Healing only becomes possible when the symbolic and literal distance between the islands is bridged, forcing a confrontation with the painful history that separated them.
Rock, Paper, Scissors
The childhood game of rock, paper, scissors functions as a symbol for the arbitrary nature of fate and the devastating, life-altering consequences of a single, impulsive choice. It represents the specific, tangible event that fractured the twins’ relationship, setting their lives on opposing paths. This connects directly to the theme of family reconciliation by establishing the deep, formative wound that must be addressed and healed. As a method for resolving a monumental life decision, the game itself highlights the tragic immaturity of the moment, where a childish contest is used to determine the course of two adult lives. It becomes the symbolic origin point for decades of resentment, misunderstanding, and emotional distance between Tabitha and Harper, who are forever cast as winner and loser.
When their parents divorce, the sisters use the game to decide who will live with their beloved father, Billy. The outcome is swift and decisive: Tabitha “shot rock and Harper shot paper. Harper won” (21). This simple action is not just a victory for Harper but the inciting incident for Tabitha’s lifelong sense of injustice. Tabitha’s immediate accusation of cheating, followed by her loss in the “best of three,” cements a feeling of victimhood that poisons their relationship for the next 14 years. The symbol demonstrates how a process that is supposed to be random and fair can produce an outcome that feels profoundly unfair, shaping personalities and fueling a narrative of resentment that defines the family’s central conflict.
The game ultimately symbolizes a failure of adult responsibility, as the parents delegate a life-altering decision to their teenage daughters, abdicating their duty to navigate the complexities of their family’s dissolution. This original sin necessitates the novel’s plot, which is centered on the sisters’ struggle to undo the damage of that single, arbitrary moment. Their eventual reconciliation depends on moving beyond the simple binary of winner and loser established by the game and embracing a more mature and complex understanding of forgiveness and their shared history.
Mistaken Identity
The recurring motif of mistaken identity emphasizes the twins’ inescapable physical connection despite their profound emotional estrangement. This motif is central to exploring themes of prejudice, empathy, and the struggle to escape the past in a small-town community. Because Harper and Tabitha are physically indistinguishable, other characters constantly project the reputation, history, and personality of one sister onto the other. This dynamic creates the story’s most dramatic conflicts and, paradoxically, opens the door for genuine understanding. It highlights how much of an individual’s identity is constructed not from their intrinsic character but from the perceptions and gossip circulating within their community, forcing the sisters to confront the reputations they have built.
The most pivotal instance of this motif occurs when Sadie Zimmer, intending to confront Harper for her affair, instead throws champagne on and slaps Tabitha at Billy’s memorial: “In the seconds after Sadie slapped Tabitha—Tabitha, not Harper, a mistake Harper deeply regretted—Drew had appeared out of nowhere to subdue Mrs. Zimmer” (78). In this moment of public humiliation, Tabitha is forced to physically bear the consequences of her sister’s actions. The abstract concepts of reputation and consequence become painfully concrete, linking the sisters in a shared moment of shame that disrupts their long-held separation and serves as a catalyst for their eventual reconciliation.
Ultimately, the entire island-swap plot is a sustained exercise in mistaken identity, forcing each sister to literally live as the other. This narrative framework is the primary mechanism through which the theme of empathy is explored. By inhabiting each other’s lives, Tabitha experiences the island’s harsh judgment of Harper, while Harper confronts the rigid social expectations placed on Tabitha. The motif argues that seeing the world through another’s eyes—even when the experience is forced—is the only way to dissolve long-held resentments, challenge personal prejudices, and achieve authentic family healing.
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