Heart Bones

Virtually the only major character in the book who has a complete set of parents is Marcos. Every other young character is missing one or both parents, a prevalent motif of the narrative. The epitome of this motif is Samson, whose mother, Isabel, drowns in a riptide when he is five. His father, Rake, responds by taking Samson with him as he assuages his grief by sailing endlessly around the Texas coastline. Rake deposits Samson at a church in the face of Hurricane Ike, then disappears in the storm.

Beyah’s parents are absent in multiple ways. Before her tragic death, Janean, an addict, essentially abandons Beyah to her own devices. Her death only makes her abandonment permanent. Brian, who slowly withdraws from Beyah’s life as she grows up, is also an absent parent when Beyah becomes a teen. When she moves into his Texas beach house, Beyah avoids Brian and gives him as little information about her life as possible, perpetuating his effective absence.

Even Sara, Beyah’s stepsister, whose mother has divorced her dad, is missing a parent. Hoover’s overarching intent in using this motif is the demonstration that brokenness is a common characteristic of the lives of young adults. Everyone, she implies, has some missing parts of their makeup, around which they must negotiate and grow.a

Virtually every significant character in the narrative has made decisions that have negatively impacted their lives and the lives of those around them. Janean, an addict who funds her illness in part by stealing money meant for her daughter, is an obvious example of ongoing harmful choices. Beyah, who sells her body in order to buy food and clothes, regrets what she has done as being a wrong choice, even though she can perceive no alternative to it. Once out of the trailer-park context, Beyah decides she will not be trapped into selling herself again. This causes her to doubt the motives of Samson, who realizes she is broke and hungry and, without ulterior motives, offers her money. Thus, her prior choices impede her ability to trust and accept benevolence from others.

Samson chooses to be on his own as an early adolescent, and the multiple choices following that cause him to run afoul of the law. Now a fugitive, he finds he has no recourse but to continue entering the empty homes of absent residents, moving from one location to another. Even the written record he keeps of the houses he entered and the food he ate—along with the repairs he made—is a choice that further reveals the illegality of his actions.

The genesis of the novel itself is the consequence of a thoughtless choice; 21-year-old Brian’s one-night stand with Janean results in the birth of Beyah. From this choice, as from those made by others, the characters wrestle with the challenges they brought upon themselves and ultimately grow. Hoover implies that all these individuals have made choices that haunt them. The quality of their lives depends on how they deal with the results of their choices.

Another motif Hoover employs liberally is the “view from the top,” literally and metaphorically. The first instance of this is when Samson, standing on the upper deck of the ferry, stares down at Beyah. Fond of gazing at the ocean from high places, he is taken instead by the vision of this strange, seemingly helpless girl. Beyah, symbolically and literally on the lower level, does not understand what he sees or why he tries to help. Throughout the narrative, Samson works to show her the higher view. He sets her alarm to wake up in time to see the sunrise over the ocean. He climbs onto her balcony each morning to watch the sunrise with her. He summons her to the top of Marjorie’s house, the tallest home on the peninsula, to see the ocean’s grandeur, and takes her there again to watch the magnificent July 4 fireworks display. In the final scene of the book, Samson once again takes Beyah to Marjorie’s roof to gaze upon the ocean, where the two at last confess their love for each other. By the end of the narrative, Beyah has adopted Samson’s perspective.