63 pages • 2-hour read
The Unraveling of Julia
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Symbols & Motifs
Content Warning: This section contains discussion of death, graphic violence, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and substance use.
Blue
The color blue has several symbolic meanings in the novel. Mike is killed by a man in a “blue hoodie” (2), which causes blue to represent death. Blue also becomes an important clue in discovering the murderer is Italian. The hoodie is team gear for the Gli Azzuri (Azure Blues) soccer team. The blue hoodie represents nationality and sports affiliation, as well as death.
Next, blue eyes are a recessive trait that is passed down in Julia’s family. Julia sees her eyes in pictures of Rossi and Fiamma, as well as in Fiamma’s self-portraits. Fiamma’s coworkers are also able to see the resemblance in Fiamma and Julia’s blue eyes. Fiamma recognizes Julia as her daughter after Julia takes off her sunglasses and Fiamma sees her blue eyes. Blue represents Julia’s bloodline, all the way back to Caterina. In Julia’s nightmare, “two gargantuan, enraged eyes glared down at her from Caterina Sforza’s face, their gigantic irises glinting electric blue” (70). This shade of blue appears in another nightmare. In it, Julia is strangled with “her face turning electric blue” (94). Electric blue is more shocking than the blue of Julia’s family’s eyes or the team gear. The color blue is also part of Julia’s psychic visions. In one, her “laptop opened like a huge maw, blasting intense blue light at her” (116). Eventually, the blue light envelops and drowns her in this waking vision brought on by drugs, as well as Julia’s psychic powers.
Later, the symbolism of the color blue becomes positive. The “blue light intensified as it slipped from a crack in the wall, forming a sapphire stream, its beauty preternatural” (158). This light turns into the glowing blue figure of Caterina, who leads Julia to the underground tunnel and cell. During the final confrontation with Mike’s killer, a “faint blue aura materialized around [Julia], enveloping her in a shimmering cerulean haze” (350). This blue light helps her knock the murderer into a sculpture. In other words, the blue light saves Julia’s life. It represents supernatural assistance.
Food
Food starts out as a positive symbol of Italy’s culture, but becomes a sinister vehicle for delivering poison. At first, Julia is in love with Anna’s cooking. She makes “bruschetta, prosciutto” (49), “acquacotta, soup with tomat’, bean, onion, litt’ bi cabbage” (66), “pappa al pomodoro” (85), and “roast chicken with lemon and Vin Santo, a Tuscan dessert wine […] with roasted potatoes sprinkled with pecorino cheese and black pepper, so delicious that Julia vowed to exist only on Tuscan cuisine” (91). Food initially represents the best of Tuscany and sensory enjoyment.
Later, Julia learns that Anna was paid to add a hallucinogen to the food. It causes nightmares and triggers Julia’s psychic gifts. Her opinion of the delicious meals changes dramatically once she gets the results of her drug test. Food becomes a symbol of Anna’s deception and corruption.
Astrology
Astrology becomes an important motif in the text. Julia becomes obsessed with astrology after she discovers that her “horoscope predicted Mike’s murder before it happened” (9). Scottoline includes a variety of horoscopes that Julia reads. For instance, her horoscope for the day that she gets her inheritance says, “Your luck is going to change today” (17). These are intertextual elements that guide Julia. She thinks, “astrology gave her a sneak peek at fate, a fighting chance against the stars, and until this inheritance, her luck hadn’t exactly been stellar” (27). Astrology symbolizes the ability to glimpse the future and possibly change her fate.
Julia shares her love of astrology with several other characters. Helen, the medium who reveals Julia’s talent and trains her, is an “astrology adherent, too. [She thinks] we are driven by forces that we don’t always understand, some cosmic in origin” (270). Astrological obsession runs in Julia’s family. Rossi and Caterina love astrology. Rossi commissioned a fresco of a “classical astrological map of the Zodiac” (46) for the villa. This fresco comes to life in one of Julia’s visions. Various zodiac signs—Cancer, Leo, and Scorpio—attack her, then she travels into space past the planets.
When Courtney takes a picture of this fresco, she notices a camera that was placed there by the conspiracy. This connects astrology with food, as the astrology hides something negative. Despite this negative connotation, Julia maintains her love of astrology at the end of the novel. She is excited that her baby will have the sun sign of Leo.
Art
The astrological fresco isn’t the only symbolic piece of art in the novel, as art is a key motif in the text. There are a variety of frescos in the villa, ranging from a “whimsical Tuscan landscape” (48) to the Sforza family tree. These represent Rossi’s individual taste in art, and most people who see the villa love the frescos.
Julia also encounters famous works of art during her travels in Italy. She sees a portrait of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Caterina’s father, by Piero del Pollaiolo that was painted in 1471. She also sees a portrait of Caterina by Lorenzo di Credi in 1487. These can be compared and contrasted with the self-portraits that Fiamma paints. One is when she is a child and the other is when she is an adult; both are watercolors. The former was hidden in the underground cell, while the other was part of Julia’s vision. Unlike the famous paintings of historical figures, these self-portraits help Julia locate her birth mother. They represent a familial connection.
Julia meets Fiamma at the opening of her “art show at Estrella Studio” (329) in Florence. She paints watercolors of the Spedale degli Innocenti orphanage, opened in 1445. Her art is a kind of penance for giving up Julia for financial reasons. The art gallery represents reunion, as well as Fiamma’s talent.
Furthermore, art saves Julia in the final showdown with Mike’s killer. The supernatural blue light allows her to toss the murderer so he “fell into the sculpture” (351). Art not only helps her find her birth mother, but also helps her to avenge her husband’s murder by injuring the criminal.
Overall, Scottoline uses art as a motif to describe Italian culture, like food. Fiamma says, “Florence was the world’s epicenter, and men like da Vinci, Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, Vasari, and Raphael gained prominence, not because they made war but because they made art” (343). Art is more important than violence, Scottoline argues, and holds the key to Julia discovering her true identity.
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