The Poppy Fields

“They have each been told that the only way out of a hardship is through, but nobody ever told them they had to stay awake.”

This novel explores The Individual Nature of Grief and Healing while examining the human impulse to sidestep the more difficult aspects of the healing process. For some, the sleep treatment represents just this: the opportunity to sleep through the first, most difficult stages of grief and emerge only at a time when the pain becomes more manageable.

“Ava knew that her hands looked ugly, but they’d still built her a beautiful life.”

Ava is initially characterized by her art and her anxiety. She picked up drawing as a child to manage her fears, and it became a career. When she is nervous, she bites her cuticles, so for Ava, her hands symbolize both her anxiety and the tools she uses to manage it.

“Sasha used to be one of them, used to fit alongside these fictional faces. She was the heroine, bubbly and bright. She had everything she’d ever wanted.”

Sasha is initially characterized through loss. She does not clarify the exact details, but her engagement came to an abrupt end. Sasha is extroverted and relationships matter to her, so the loss of her fiancé is particularly upsetting. This passage highlights her sense that she is no longer the “heroine” of her own life and has failed in some undefined way.