51 pages • 1-hour read
The Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club
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Symbols & Motifs
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.
Reading
For both the members of the book club and the soldiers, reading represents peace, empathy, and imagination, and the soldiers clamor to read the books that the women bring them. Cadence tells Major Gilbert, “The men love them. Not one asked for a comic book” (125). The soldiers love the books because they offer an outlet for human capacities not valued in their military lives: emotional sensitivity, compassion, and the longing for freedom, among others. Major Gilbert initially contends that the books obstruct the men’s purpose. He tells Cadence, “Maybe you don’t understand what these men do, Miss Smith. They train to fight in combat. There’s no room in their packs for these” (126). In other words, the men are supposed to prepare themselves for deadly destruction. If they read books, they’ll become kinder and less accepting of brute violence. There’s “no room in their packs” because war is not an enlightening place.
The popularity of the ASEs and Major Gilbert’s revised opinion suggest that no soldier wants to lose touch with peaceful society. They want to carry the books with them; the books link them to a world not defined by violence. Major Gilbert tells Cadence, “I still stand by my belief that they can’t bring books into battle, but I have to say there have been many fewer fights among the men since you brought those books” (147). The practical benefit of “fewer fights” helps Major Gilbert see the advantages of reading as a means of Maintaining Compassion During Wartime.
The Martha’s Vineyard Beach and Book Club
The Martha’s Vineyard Beach and Book Club represents normalcy amid the upheaval of war. For Cadence, it also represents opportunity. The book club gives Cadence a sense of control. She knows what’s going to happen. They’ll pick out a book, read it, and discuss it. The atmosphere of the book club contrasts with the World War II environment, which Cadence can’t manage. Cadence sums up the symbolism and juxtaposition, “Determined to continue the appearance of normalcy while we waited for Briar’s information from Captain McManus, Bess and I convened a book-club meeting” (233). Cadence has no authority over McManus, and she can’t anticipate what will occur with Peter, but she can hold a book club meeting and create the brief feeling of “normalcy”—a world that she imagines free from precarious variables.
Later, Cadence jokingly recognizes that the book club has not been the source of stability and normalcy she hoped it would be, telling Bess, “We need to get your hospital appointment made, Gram. And actually finish a book. I’m looking forward to a normal life again, aren’t you?” (355). This ironic statement points to the irony of the book club itself—formed as an attempt at normalcy, it has brought upheaval into the lives of its members, but the changes it has wrought have been largely positive. They have captured a Nazi spy, protected an innocent fugitive, and realized The Power of Solidarity Among Women. Cadence has found her future husband and a career that will take her far from the Vineyard while letting her keep her roots there. Bess acknowledges the reality that life never stands still for long: “Normal won’t be happening anytime soon” (355).
The Golden Heart Bracelet
The heart bracelet symbolizes the unity between the different Smith family members, including Bess. The bracelet starts with Tom, who gave it to Cadence. Cadence wears it to Tom’s funeral. She says, “I tried to remember the good days with Tom […] The time he left the heart bracelet under my pillow for my sixteenth birthday. I’d worn it that day as an homage to Tom, and I ran one finger along it” (452). The image of Cadence touching the bracelet is potent, indicating that she’s communing with her allegedly dead brother.
Before Bess leaves, Cadence gives the bracelet to her, which keeps Bess and the Smith family in touch. Though Bess physically loses her daughter—Mari’s mother—she maintains a spiritual connection by affixing the bracelet onto her baby’s wrist before the medical staff take the baby away. Mari finds the bracelet and begins wearing it after the death of her mother, Nancy Starwood. The bracelet creates a symbolic link between Mari and the Martha’s Vineyard family she doesn’t know she has. The bracelet symbolizes continuity, joining together decades of familial relationships, going from Tom to Cadence to Bess to Nancy to Mari. The bracelet brings Mari back to her great-grandparents’ home and into the Smith family.
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