54 pages • 1-hour read
The Wall
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Symbols & Motifs
Hugo’s Car
In the two years that the protagonist spends inside the wall, she witnesses nature reclaim the world marred by human intervention. With no humans remaining, plants grow unburdened, with no care for the remnants of society. The greatest example of this is Hugo’s car, a symbol that reflects the theme of Nature as a Dominant Force. With nowhere to drive, the car sits outside the lodge, unused, where plants grow over it, transforming it into a new habitat for woodland creatures: “It was almost new when we came here in it. Today it’s overgrown with vegetation, a nest for mice and birds. Particularly in June, when the wild grape blossoms, it looks very pretty, like an enormous wedding bouquet” (185).
The car has no defense against the power of nature, which repurposes the vehicle, making it into something new. The protagonist uses a simile, comparing how the car looks when the plants growing through it are in bloom as “an enormous wedding bouquet.” This description creates a connection between the car and a bouquet meant to symbolize the beginning of a new journey. Just as at a wedding, two people come together to begin a new life, so too does the car join with nature, becoming a home for animals. Left unchecked, nature cannot be stopped, and overcomes the legacies of society. The car, like the roads and buildings outside of the wall, have no defenses against nature, and will eventually be broken down and erased.
The Alarm Clock
The alarm clock represents the protagonist’s final connection to her former life and when it breaks, it becomes a symbol that represents the protagonist’s isolation from society. Throughout the novel, the protagonist must make her own way in this new world, creating new routines and adapting to a new way of looking at the world. Without society to dictate how she sees the world, she must define it herself.
Her alarm clock, its ticking representing how she kept time in her previous life, is the final legacy of the society she lived in. When it ceases, the change is barely noticeable, and though it does not change how the protagonist lives, its silence is significant: “I was sitting taking in a shirt when it stopped ticking. I didn’t notice at all, or rather I noticed only that something had changed. Only when the cat pricked up her ears and turned her head toward the bed did I consciously hear the new silence” (215).
At first, the protagonist only notices that something is different, reflecting her slow realization that the world beyond is no more. Then, this new silence forces her to find other ways to keep time. She bases it off nature around her, using the crows to keep her bearing. This reflects her own slow adaptation to her new isolated life. The protagonist adjusts to her new life over time, learning to live on her own, free of the constraints of society.
The White Crow
The white crow that the protagonist befriends and provides for symbolizes Liberation Through Isolation. The crow mirrors the protagonist’s own experiences isolated behind the wall, and their shared identity attracts the protagonist’s attention. The white crow is not accepted by the others, often trailing behind and sitting apart. Nevertheless, the crow persists, not allowing its rejection to dominate its life. When the protagonist sees the white crow, she feels a connection to it, and thinks of its future: “I can do very little for it. Perhaps my scraps are prolonging a life that shouldn’t be prolonged. But I want the white crow to live, and sometimes I dream that there’s another one in the forest and that they will find each other” (210).
As she wonders whether she is helping the crow to survive when it should not, she discovers that she wants it to live so that it can find kinship with another bird like it. This hope embodies her own desire for a future, in which she can continue to live as her authentic self, unaltered by the expectations of others. The protagonist sees herself in the crow, and hopes that it can find the same freedom in its loneliness as she does. She understands what it is like to have life dominated by what others think, like the crow’s place among its murder. She therefore perceives the crow as being on a similar journey as her.
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