54 pages • 1-hour read
The Shards: A Novel
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Symbols & Motifs
Content Warning: The section contains depictions of violence, sexual content, death, animal death, and animal cruelty.
The Music
The novel’s many references to popular songs from 1981 and before fragment the narrative and create “shards” that poke through the story, injecting outside voices and altering the mood of the scene. Whether the songs confirm or contrast the moment, they inevitably create a narrative rupture. They’re a part of the characters’ world, but they’re also autonomous, existing in the real world as well as in the fiction.
When Bret listens to Blondie’s “Call Me,” the song pulls the reader into foreshadowing, with the title alluding to the Trawler’s silent phone calls. As “Call Me” is the theme song for the film American Gigolo, the song pushes the reader to the movie, which influences Bret and Ellis. The Doors influenced writer Joan Didion, so when Bret and his friends listen to The Doors on the beach at the Jonathan Club, the music cuts back to one of Bret and Ellis’s major influences. “Don’t Touch Me There” by the Tubes is one of Bret’s favorite songs and represents the slipperiness of intimacy and his and his friends’ reluctance to reach out and touch one another in a supportive, substantial way. Tom Petty’s “Here Comes My Girl” clashes with the arrival of Robert, who wants to talk to Bret during gym class. Robert isn’t Bret’s “girl,” but Bret wants Robert to be his sexual partner, so their dynamic scrambles the norms of Petty’s song.
The Beige Van
The beige van symbolizes mystery: It first appears when Bret goes to Buckley at night; it returns at the Sherman Oaks Galleria; comes back at the space where the “hippie” scratched the girl; it follows Bret to Palm Springs; and it appears after Bret finds the incriminating contents in the basement of the house on Benedict Canyon. The constant presence of the van suggests a series of clues, but the clues never form a concrete discovery. Bret doesn’t find out what or who is in the van, this suggestive object fails to tell a coherent story.
Once Bret finally confronts it, the van “lurches” away as if it’s afraid of Bret. Bret becomes the aggressor. He challenges the van and Robert. He’s confident the two are related, but his certainty isn’t the same as the truth, and no evidence links Robert to the van. Once Robert dies, the van vanishes, which suggests the van and Robert share a link. However, years later, Bret sees a beige van in a 7-11 parking lot. The van haunts Bret and reminds him of his teen trauma. The mystery sticks to Bret due to the lack of resolution, prompting him to write the book.
The Pets
The pets symbolize vulnerability. By abducting the pets first, the Trawler removes a source of comfort and familiarity, increasing his victims’ vulnerability. The presence of pets creates a soft spot, and the Trawler exploits the weakness. Bret explains,
The Trawler focused on someone whose family had pets or the victim had a pet themselves (and it didn’t matter if it was a dog, a cat, a bird, a snake in one instance, mice, a rabbit, a guinea pig) and the pet would disappear, and not only the victim’s pet, but other pets in the neighborhood where the victim resided would vanish as well.
The emphasis on pets suggests that the people are reliant on them. They get from them what they can’t get from other people. Bret’s link to Shingy supports the claim. Bret’s mother and father are in Europe; they can’t help him through the traumatic time, but Shingy is there. Similarly, Debbie’s horse isn’t a “predator” like her father or abusive like her mother. While Matt doesn’t live in the same space with his mother and father, he shares the pool house with his fish and cat. Arguably, he’s closer to his pets than his parents.
As Robert doesn’t have pets, and people accused him of taking pets in Chicago, leading Bret to view Robert as a predator—the antithesis of the vulnerability he sees in himself and his friends.
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