The Summer Wives

“To call it an accident implies an absence of intent, nobody’s fault, a tragic mistake. A smash is just that. Makes no judgment on how the thing happened, or why.”

Regarding her injury in a car accident, Miranda’s reflection on the difference between British and American English distinguishes between a lack of fault (“accident”) and a violent reality (“smash”). This subtle distinction in diction introduces the theme of hidden truths, foreshadowing that her injury, and the island’s central tragedy, are not accidental but the result of deliberate, violent acts. In this case, she dwells on her husband’s abusive decision to crash their car, an act for which he should be judged but has escaped responsibility, like many of the privileged male characters in the story.

“She is proud. They don’t call them boarders. It is—oh, what is it called? An artist colony.”

Mrs. Medeiro reveals the Fishers’ financial decline, a truth they try to conceal with pride. Calling boarders an “artist colony” is a façade to maintain their social standing. This change reflects the crumbling elite’s desperation to hide their diminished status from each other and the local community, who are well aware of the reality.

“Bland and stale and rich, just like themselves. She crosses herself when she thinks this—the Families are the Island’s lifeblood, after all, and Tio Manuelo makes all his profit in the summer from cans of soup and boxes of saltine crackers—but it’s true.”

Through Bianca’s perspective, the narrative establishes the deep class resentment simmering beneath the island’s surface. Her observation highlights the theme of The Hypocrisy of the Patrician Elite, contrasting their bland, artificial lifestyle with the vivid life of the locals.