51 pages • 1-hour read
The Story She Left Behind
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Symbols & Motifs
The Leather Satchel
Bronwyn’s leather satchel is symbolic of the past. The satchel “contains the words she’s spent her life finding and creating” (2). It is one of the few things that Bronwyn carries with her when she flees Bluffton at the start of the novel. Her attachment to the satchel conveys her attachment to her life’s work—an inventive linguistic project that she began years prior when she was just a girl. Throughout the years that follow Bronwyn’s disappearance, Clara is convinced that the satchel is lost forever. It disappeared with her mother 25 years prior and is as lost as Bronwyn herself. The same is true of the past: it is an irretrievable realm that Clara often visits in her mind but feels incapable of fully accessing and understanding.
When the satchel resurfaces in Clara’s life, reminders of her past resurface with it, further cementing The Impact of the Past on the Present. The satchel physically resembles a relic: “worn and scratched, its brass buckles tarnished” (12). It represents the mysterious life that Bronwyn lived and the work she completed. Retrieving the satchel from Clara offers the hope of recovering Bronwyn herself—or, at the very least, her memory. Therefore, when the satchel is later stolen, Clara feels that she has lost her grasp on the past once more. She ultimately must let go of recovering the satchel because she needs to let go of the past. Bronwyn later tells her that the lost object is of no concern to her. Instead of seeking it out, the two work together to write a new story and thus focus on the present.
The London Fog and Smog
The London fog is symbolic of personal trauma. When Clara and Wynnie first arrive in London, the thick air shocks them. Everyone assures them that the fog is typical of London weather and will soon dissipate. On the contrary, the fog only worsens and turns into smog—a thick, polluted air caused by both weather systems and dirty coal. As soon as Clara and Wynnie step outside their “eyes st[i]ng, the air seeming to be made of fire sparks. The smudged shapes of buildings [appear], no lines or edges to delineate form, as if someone ha[s] erased the surety of the structures” (115). The characters can barely see in front of them and have difficulty breathing. In these ways, the fog mirrors the thickness of Clara’s internal unrest. In the same way that she can’t navigate the streets because of the fog, she can’t navigate her life in the present because of her lingering trauma. She also can’t care for Wynnie in the fog, just as she can’t be the mother she wants to be while her maternal relationship remains unresolved. The thick, smoggy atmosphere in London thus reifies Clara’s complex emotional experience. Once she leaves the city, the smog clears, and Clara can regard her situation more clearly. Indeed, it’s in Cumbria (not London) where she ultimately confronts and processes her trauma.
The Lake District House
The Jamesons’ summer house in England’s Lake District is symbolic of healing and renewal. The house (physically located in the town of Cumbria) is surrounded by woodland, fields, trees, lakes, and sky. The house is far outside the bustling, smoggy London streets and offers Clara a reprieve. She is surrounded by the beauty of the natural world while there and thus finds healing via proximity to nature. The way she describes the place upon arrival conveys its positive impact on her:
Outside stretched a breathtaking landscape with a heartbeat both familiar and wholly new. This bedroom […] overlook[ed] a sloping, heather-colored field that flowed down to a pewter lake skimmed in the glitter of ice. Stone walls, flinty and gray and white, snaked around the fields. […] A dirt path set with flagstones wound its way down a sloped lawn toward a pasture that ran to the lake’s edge. Even in winter, the landscape was sublime, bare of its finery and revealing its perfect bones (165).
Henry uses vivid and descriptive language to render this scene, capturing Clara’s intensity of focus on what she’s observing. The place is captivating and offers her a sense of peace, calm, and safety. Because she feels physically relaxed here, she can confront her emotional unrest more concertedly.
Furthermore, staying at the Lake District house grants Clara new relationships. The Jamesons are welcoming to her and help her find her mother. Their generosity contributes to the house’s positive, hospitable atmosphere. Clara feels free to express herself and sort through her unrest while there because the Jamesons embrace her without pretense.
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