Content Warning: This section includes discussion of death, racism (specifically anti-Romani attitudes and slurs), anti-gay bias, and the German death camps during WWII.

Both Edith and Hugo’s character arcs require them to confront their grief rather than avoid it to begin the healing process. Edith and Hugo have both suffered great losses and their inability to accept or acknowledge their pain prevents them from healing and learning to live with their grief. The novel argues that one can only fully “embrace the life [they] truly want” (321) and fulfill their purpose and dreams in life, after they have learned to accept loss and give themselves the proper time and space to heal.

Edith’s arc moves her from a place of avoidance to one of acceptance, allowing her to cherish the memory of her mother and pursue her own happiness despite the pain of loss. Edith avoids her grief by routinely focusing her time and energy on projects to help others and keep herself busy so that she does not have to think about her mother’s death. Woods uses Edith’s first-person POV to emphasize her avoidance as a coping mechanism. She’s so resistant to facing the loss, even in the privacy of her own thoughts, that she avoids discussing her mother’s illness and death explicitly until Chapter 10. Edith remains unable to acknowledge the pain of her grief even to herself until the final section of the novel when she finally admits that she “never gave [herself] time to grieve,” but instead, “distracted [herself] and everyone else with endless tasks and things to be done,” knowing that the moment she gave her mind the time and space necessary to accept her loss, she would be forced to consider what comes next (250).

Woods suggests that Edith uses first her role as her mother’s caregiver and later the pain of her grief as excuses not to pursue her true desires. While her mother was alive, Edith’s life revolved around her role as caregiver, which allowed her to ignore her dreams and avoid the fear and uncertainty of chasing them. Once her mother is gone, she remains stuck, unable to move on until she accepts her loss and begins to heal. The trauma of her mother’s illness and death causes her to cling self-protectively to her mother’s memory to avoid the risk of further pain, leaving her in limbo.

Similarly, Hugo avoids the pain of Stephane’s death by throwing himself into his role as his brother’s replacement in the family business. Rather than giving himself the time and space to heal, he attempts to twist himself into a shape that will fill the hole left by his brother, willing to sacrifice his happiness if it will somehow magically bring Stephane back. Woods uses the sense memories evoked by the magic vanilla beans and a passage from Swann’s Way—two key symbols in the novel—as a rhetorical tool to push Hugo toward the epiphany that replacing his brother is not possible. Only by acknowledging his loss can he start to heal, pursue his true passions, and stand up for what’s right. After he lets go of his self-imposed need to replace Stephane, he’s able to make amends with the Moreaus and peace with himself.

Through Madame Moreau’s tragic history and her growing relationships with Edith and Hugo, Woods highlights the role of community in the healing process. Madame Moreau suffers from tremendous grief, having lost her father and mother, her adoptive father, and even her daughter—her pain keeps her from connecting with others or experiencing true joy. Like Edith and Hugo, her arc centers on her need to accept her loss to heal and find renewed purpose in her life—something none of these characters can do on their own. Edith, Hugo, and Madame Moreau all required the love and support of their friends to struggle through the process and come out the other side ready to heal and move forward.