Day

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Pages 1-54

Part 1, Pages 54-116

Part 2

Part 3

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Wolfe

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses suicidal ideation.

Wolfe is the invented online persona that Isabel and Robbie create, posting photos stolen from other people’s social media to create a person with thousands of online followers. As such, Wolfe is a symbolic representation of Isabel and Robbie’s dreams and desires. He is first described as “if [he] were real, he’d be the elusive figure at the heart of the story. […] He’s both fabulous and obtainable, a regular guy with the volume turned up a little, the lights on full” (7). In other words, he is “regular” in the sense that he posts photos of his pets, about his job, and of vacations that he takes; however, he does so in a way that is more exciting and fulfilling than the lives that most people—specifically Isabel and Robbie—live.

Each of the photos that Robbie posts as Wolfe is something that they wish they had in their lives. For example, on the first day Robbie posts a photo of a farmhouse with the caption “Just saw this house for sale. What if we were to buy it? Take the plunge” (47). This post comes while he and Isabel are talking about Robbie moving out, with Isabel expressing her sadness at the fact that she and Dan have been unable to buy the house in the country they always dreamed of—with room for Robbie to live with them. Then, when Robbie goes to Iceland, he posts a photo of “a harbor so extravagantly blue as to suggest a glistening serenity […] a vastness intended to inspire both consolation and awe” (119). However, at the same time he posts this photo, he writes a letter to Isabel in which he states that “I’ve never felt like this before, like time itself is the only event and I’m here with it”—but then he crosses out the phrase “and it doesn’t make me happy” (198), conveying the idea that the Iceland in the photo, of “serenity” and “consolation,” is what Robbie hoped to find but was disappointed he did not actually feel that way about being there. Additionally, after Robbie dies, Isabel continues to post on Wolfe’s Instagram with photos of Robbie in Iceland, presenting Robbie as having found love in Wolfe. After she expresses her fear that Robbie died without being in love, that “of all the possibilities, one of the least tenable is the idea of Robbie alone in that cabin” (235), it is clear that she is creating a life of happiness for Robbie through Wolfe’s Instagram, giving him the love and happiness that she believes he never found.

Each of these ideas—a country home, peace and happiness in Iceland, and a relationship for Robbie—is something that Isabel and Robbie wanted in their lives but failed to find. In this way, the symbolism of Wolfe’s profile conveys the theme of Midlife Disillusionment. Because of the lack of fulfillment that they find in their own lives, Robbie and Isabel invent a person who can achieve the things that they wanted for themselves.

Homes

One recurring motif throughout the novel is different versions of living spaces that the characters inhabit, and the emphasis that is put on these homes. From Dan’s critique of Garth that he lives in a “rent-controlled apartment on East Tenth” (78) to Isabel’s judgment that “the previous denizens have shellacked the pine floors [and] left an ineradicable smell of dog in the basement” (232), homes serve as a status symbol in the novel by which character’s judge their own success and that of others.

In this way, homes are also representative of the status that Robbie and Isabel wish to attain. From the start of the novel, Isabel expresses her disinterest in the apartment that she and Dan bought in Brooklyn. She believed, initially, that it was just a temporary home—but is coming to believe that it will be more permanent for them. She discusses with Robbie her dissatisfaction, bringing up “that house in the country [they] were going to buy [with] a dozen rooms, and a vegetable garden, and three or four dogs” (17). For Isabel, their country home symbolizes her desire for fulfillment, believing that a larger home, out of the city, would lead her to be happier. However, once she finds this home, she realizes that it is not what she was hoping for—instead recognizing its dilapidated state. For Isabel, her home embodies her Midlife Disillusionment, as she envisioned a country home coming with happiness, but instead only finds disappointment.

Similarly, Robbie goes to Iceland and rents a cabin in the middle of nowhere in the hopes of finding peace and rediscovering his lost happiness. He stands “at the threshold of the cabin, with the door propped open. It’s his favorite spot” where he can see “the valley that slopes downward among the pinnacles […] as if some god of the North had waved a titanic hand and simply said, Green. It’s difficult not to think of the gods here” (124). However, the “godliness” of Iceland is quickly replaced by disappointment for Robbie, as he fails to find the fulfillment that he was chasing and slips slowly into illness. In this way, homes serve both as a source of hope and, ultimately, as a source of disappointment—conveying the idea that happiness and fulfillment require more work than a change of location.

The Lake

The lake at Isabel’s new home symbolizes forgiveness and renewal for Nathan, as he views it as a form of punishment for his guilt over Robbie’s death and Violet’s sickness. As he stands by the lake looking out at the water, he thinks of how “he can’t be forgiven” (227), then decides that he needs to wade into the water to feel its cold and its dark. He notes how “he dislikes the fact that he fears, more than anything, the coldness of the water” (227). While never explicitly stating that he plans to end his life, it is clear that Nathan suffers with an overwhelming amount of guilt and fears nothing in the lake but the cold—not the possibility of drowning or the other dangers the lake poses at night. Instead, he feels as though “he has to keep moving through the dark cold [because] he couldn’t return to the warmth and the light. He couldn’t talk to anyone, couldn’t withstand their demonstrations of love and sympathy” (250). In other words, Nathan feels, at that moment, that he is unworthy of any “sympathy” or forgiveness, consumed by the guilt he feels.

However, after Nathan comes out of the water, he is found by Garth in the street and takes his first steps toward talking about how he feels. Although he initially refuses to get in the car or tell Garth what happened, he finally reveals that he wanted to know “what it was like to be the water. In the cold quiet dark [and] wanted to know what it was like. For Robbie” (257-58). Although he refuses to say anything more, he reaches out and grabs Garth hair, and the two sit in silence with Nathan holding onto him. Although it is a bizarre act—to grab his hair—it is also an act of physical contact and connection, something to anchor Nathan as he struggles with his feelings. Garth does not offer any “demonstrations of love and sympathy” (250), instead responding gruffly to Nathan and angrily insisting that he talk to him, it is exactly the sort of interaction that Nathan needs in that moment. In this way, the water and its cold, initially seen by Nathan as an escape from his guilt, instead serves as a form of cleansing and forgiveness. He enters the water overwhelmed by his feelings and, after surviving, finds Garth as a form of support.