62 pages • 2-hour read
The Other Valley
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Symbols & Motifs
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child death and death.
Edme’s Violin
Edme’s violin symbolizes the possibility of a future defined by individual choice and freedom rather than the rigid bureaucratic rules of the Conseil, emphasizing the theme of Authoritarian Control Versus Individual Freedom. When his parents insist that he needs to pursue a practical career as a butcher, he practices in secret, first at the school and then with Odile by the lake.
In many ways, the violin and Edme’s perceived freedom through music serve as a stark contrast to Odile’s character. She pursues a career with the Conseil at the urging of her mother, admitting to herself that she is unhappy doing so, then later revealing her love of art through her carvings. She is only given access to the freedom of individuality through Edme’s music, with her time listening to him play serving as the few times in the novel when she is truly content. Edme’s death emphasizes the inability of individuality, art, and freedom to exist in a world dominated by Conseil control.
In the future, when Edme’s music reappears through his song on the radio, it permeates the mundanity and conformity of Odile’s career as a gendarme. It not only reminds her of her past regret over Edme’s death, underscoring The Lasting Impact of Grief, but also encourages her to pursue a promotion and change her life. Similarly, when she returns to the site of his death, she confronts her trauma by exhuming the violin. This act and her subsequent carrying of the tuning peg that survived serve as a symbolic rebirth of Edme’s dreams and, by extension, individual freedom. Odile then uses the peg to survive in her home, hiding from the commander and fully asserting her autonomy in her decision to save Edme.
The Fort
The fort that Odile discovers in the woods behind the school is a symbolic representation of escape from the control of the Conseil, reflecting Odile’s internal struggles and the broader conflict between individual freedom and authoritarian oversight. For Odile, the fort is a place of refuge. It is a physical space where she can hide, observe, and temporarily escape the immediate pressures of the school, the vetting program, and the repercussions of seeing Edme’s parents as visitors. By extension, the fort is the first place where Odile truly makes friends, connecting with Edme, Alain, Jo, and Justine over their excitement over having a place to escape to.
The fort, however, ends up being a hollow source of security, reflecting authoritarian control versus individual freedom. Its walls provide safety, but they also echo the structures of authority that permeate Odile’s life: The gendarmerie, the Conseil, and her duty within the vetting program. Even within the fort, she cannot fully escape surveillance, nor can she entirely evade the consequences of her knowledge of Edme’s death. No matter how long she remains there, she is forced to return to society and the restrictions that bind her. This juxtaposition of refuge and restriction mirrors Odile’s internal struggle, as her actions are guided by foresight yet constrained to institutional authority and the ethical implications of intervening in the timeline. Just as the fort gives her the illusion of safety, she is given the illusion of choice for much of her life.
In the end, this fact is underscored by the final moments of the novel when Odile escapes to the path and returns to the fort. She is unwelcome there, reported by her past self and ultimately killed rather than finding refuge in her old childhood hideout.
The Border Fences
The border fences in the novel are a symbol of authoritarian control versus individual freedom. Physically, the fences delineate the temporal territories, marking the limits imposed by the gendarmerie and the Conseil while enforcing strict rules about movement and interaction. For Odile, they are sites of both duty and danger. She patrols them relentlessly, observes potential escapees, and enforces the rules, all while recognizing that the fences simultaneously confine her own choices. In this sense, the fences embody the literal and figurative barriers that govern the characters’ lives. Every patrol along the fence reinforces her awareness of the limits imposed on her actions, both by physically restricting her but also by reminding her of how she is bound to both the past and the future.
The border marks the emotional and temporal distances between past, present, and future selves. Odile’s encounters with other characters at the fences, such as Lucie, Quinton, and her own future self, emphasize the idea that boundaries can be both protective and oppressive. They are a visual reminder of the tension between restriction and agency, something Odile finally escapes when she sneaks under the border fence, moves into the past, and asserts her autonomy by finally saving Edme and changing the future.
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