49 pages • 1-hour read
The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau
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Symbols & Motifs
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of religious discrimination.
The Butterfly Bracelet
The butterfly bracelet gains resonance throughout the book as a symbol of family, tradition, and legacy, representing the bonds that tie people together and the connections that outlive individuals. Uniquely, each half of the bracelet can stand on its own, as the jewels were intended to be an heirloom for each of Salomon Rosman’s twin children. However, what begins as a gift for Hélène Rosman and a way to honor their children becomes a larger symbol of what was stolen from many families by the Nazis in France, representing broken bonds and, for many years, the mystery of what happened to Liliane Marceau.
The design of a single bracelet is described as “look[ing] like two lilies swaying in the breeze. Four golden veins ran through each flower, each made of a constellation of flawless colorless diamonds set on a gold filigree web and tipped with tiny black diamonds” (50). Aviva describes the piece she sees as a “delicate filigree attached to a thick rope of gold” with “a constellation of diamonds that shone like a twinkling spill of stars” (93). Individually, they’re beautiful and valuable, but the two bracelets are meant to be paired, and their combined design resembles the Pieris brassicae butterfly. This butterfly, native to Europe, Northern Africa, and Asia, is also called the cabbage butterfly or the large white due to the color of its wings. The butterfly is typically read as a symbol of light, beauty, peace, or transformation, foreshadowing the happy ending of the story when the bracelet halves are brought together at last, restored to their true owner, and bequeathed as he wishes. In this way, the two halves symbolize the reconciliation of the Marceau family and the coming together of many bonds that were broken, including that of Daniel and Colette in their personae as Tristan and Isolde.
The Holocaust Education Center
The Boston Center for Holocaust Education becomes another symbol that bears out the novel’s themes of legacy as well as the imperative to fight injustice. Colette founded the Center in 1972 (21) in part using funds from the sale of the emerald ring that Hélène Rosman gave to Colette’s mother, Annabel. Colette believes that the Boston Center, and its sister institution in New York City, is a way to fight the injustice of the Holocaust and the 6 million people who were erased from existence by the Nazi program of genocide. Remembering their names and preserving their stories is a way to honor the lives of the lost, similar to how Colette believes that she honors her mother in continuing the family’s Robin Hood tradition of robbing the rich to help support worthy causes.
Continuing to fund the Center and donate her time volunteering pays tribute to people like the Rosmans and Tristan, those whom Colette feels she lost. However, her support for the Center also ties into the novel’s themes about the importance of family bonds and the beauty of reconciliation, as Colette’s work there leads to her relationship with Aviva and provides an initial thread of connection between Colette and Daniel. Supporting the Center also honors and bears out the hope that Annabel held for her daughter, that she would grow up to do some good in the world. In that way, too, the Center stands for tradition and legacy.
The Eagle’s Cry
The white eagle that is a companion to Robin Hood appears to be an invention of Harmel’s, as such an animal doesn’t exist in the earliest surviving ballads or any of the more well-known additions or adaptations. The call and response of “Kyi-kyi-kyi” and “Ko-ko-ko” that Annabel attributes to the eagle when she tells the story of their outlaw ancestor to Colette and Liliane is likewise another invention. This distinct cry becomes a way that the Marceau women relate to and identify with one another.
When they’re together in Paris, repeating this cry to one another confirms Colette and Liliane’s bond as sisters and the secret understanding they share in their family about their destiny and beliefs. In Liliane’s later life, the cry becomes the symbol of the past she lost and the heritage that she’s been separated from when the Charpentiers decide not to acknowledge her birth family. As Robin Hood’s companion, however, the eagle becomes a further expression of the theme of fighting injustice when that cry becomes the way the older Colette and Liliane recognize and identify themselves to one another. The cry symbolizes and reiterates their bond and connection, confirming the family history they share.
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