55 pages • 1-hour read
The Mysterious Bakery On Rue De Paris
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Symbols & Motifs
Vanilla Beans/Vanilla Liqueur
The special vanilla beans, one of the two prominent magical realism elements in the novel, act as a symbol of the power of sense memory. In Pierre’s first encounter with the vanilla beans, he tastes one and instantly feels that time has stopped, transporting him to the memory of his school friend Jean-Yves. In this moment of contentment, he realizes for the first time that he has always been in love with his friend. The experience inspires him to open his bakery in Compiègne and bring this magical ingredient to the people of his hometown.
The vanilla beans also serve as a link between Woods’s dual timelines. When Edith uses Pierre’s vanilla liqueur in her hot chocolate and cupcakes, it has the magical effect that it had on Pierre in the past—triggering significant, often repressed or forgotten, memories. Woods’s narrative emphasizes that it’s not only the memories that are important but the feelings they evoke as well. The magic of the vanilla beans inspires feelings of contentment, happiness, and comfort, even in potentially painful memories, pointing to the novel’s thematic exploration of Grief and Healing. The vanilla beans lead Edith, who uses work and her efforts to help others to avoid thinking about her grief, to sit with her mother’s death and finally begin to heal. The magical effect of the beans connects Edith to the memory of her mother just as it connects Pierre to the love he felt for Jean-Yves.
Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
Swann’s Way is the first volume of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, containing a scene often referred to as the episode with the madeleine. In this scene, the narrator soaks a madeleine (a small sponge cake) in his tea and eats it. The taste evokes a powerful memory of his childhood, which fades away with each successive bite. The passages excerpted in the novel, when Edith reads at night, originate from this section. Woods mirrors Proust’s episode with the madeleine in Edith’s experience drinking hot chocolate for the first time in Chapter 5. In Swann’s Way, the narrator states: “A shudder ran through my whole body, and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary changes that were taking place. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses” (Proust, Marcel. Swann’s Way, 1913). Similarly, Edith drinks the hot chocolate and instantly feels “a mixture of ecstasy and contentment” and a “kind of completeness” that transports her to an early memory with her mother (42).
For Hugo, the novel forms a connection to the past, to his soul, and to the person he wants to be. He carries a copy of Swann’s Way with him “like a talisman” or “symbol of protection” (92). In lending his copy to Edith upon their first meeting, Hugo indicates the instant attraction he feels to her. Swann’s Way comes to symbolize the deep emotional connection between Hugo and Edith. Like the vanilla beans, the book also symbolizes the tenuous connection between past and present, particularly as each character tries to reconnect with their memories of joy in the face of loss and grief. Both Manu and Hugo repeat a popular quote from the episode of the madeleine, “The potion is losing its magic” (261), indicating the lessening impact of the vanilla beans when they believe hope is lost. However, Hugo goes on to the next line, which states, “My quest, the truth, lies not in the cup but in myself” (261), emphasizing his choice to stop looking to the past for help and act to set things right in the present.
Creative Expression
Creative expression serves as a motif across the novel, underscoring the dichotomy of Dreams Versus Reality. Edith’s desire to become a singer, Hugo’s photography, and Johnny’s jazz band represent three examples of the characters’ passions for creative expression that put them at odds with the demands of modern, capitalist society. Each of them finds their dreams of creative careers constantly threatened by the practical realities of financial stability, familial expectations, and responsibilities. They each fear they must abandon their dreams for personal fulfillment in the name of financial security and survival. For example, Hugo views his photography as not merely a hobby but a connection to his authentic self. He imagines that his camera is “a doorway, some kind of threshold between the life he was living and the idealised version of it he’d once had” (93). He fears that the demands of his father’s company have created a “gulf between the two realities”—creative and capitalist— that will “swallow him up” (93). Similarly, when Edith finds Johnny a job with Geoff’s tour guide business, he confesses that he fears taking a “day job” will mean “selling out” (150).
For Edith, abandoning her dream of being a singer provides an additional example of her tendency to let fear hold her back from embracing what she truly wants. Edith claims that she abandoned her dream because she could not make a living from it. However, for all three characters, “abandoning your dreams is like abandoning a part of yourself” (150). Woods not only links Edith’s identity crisis to her grief over the loss of her mother but also to the act of deferring her dreams of singing, suggesting that creative expression is an inherent part of who she is and how she interacts with the world. When Edith sings with Johnny’s band for the first time, she feels that she is doing “what [she] was always meant to do” (285), reinforcing the link between creative expression and identity.
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