53 pages • 1 hour read
Kristin HannahOn Mystic Lake
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1999A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Annie’s Clothing
At any given point in the novel, Annie’s choice of clothing reflects who she is and who she wants to be. At the beginning of the story, Annie largely defines herself by external characteristics because she has always placed her husband’s and daughter’s needs so far ahead of her own that she does not even know who she is inside or what she wants anymore. In California, she dresses not to please herself but to please Blake by displaying her status as a wealthy man’s wife. This is what her husband wants of her, and this is the role that she plays. She is therefore defined solely by her relationship to her husband.
When Annie moves to Mystic, however, she realizes that her expensive clothes make her stand out. She therefore goes and purchases some clothes that make her look like she fits in in Mystic. These are not clothes she would normally wear, and she does not express liking the clothes all that much, but she is using clothes to appear to be the person she believes she should be. These clothing choices demonstrate that the two versions of Annie are not easily reconciled. One day when Annie is back in California, she wears some of her Mystic clothes. This surprises Blake, because Annie no longer looks like his wife. Even to him, Annie’s clothing represents who he wants her to be, and she demonstrates through these clothes from Mystic that she is no longer able to be the wife he expects her to be. Clothes are a fitting symbol for Annie because for so much of her life she was defined by other people. She built up her outside world while abandoning her inner world until it shriveled.
Gardening
Gardening represents second chances for growth and happiness. Kathy liked to garden, but when she died, her garden was untended and fell into disarray. One day, Annie suggests gardening to Izzy and tells her that the wonderful thing about gardening is that if you give a garden love and attention, it can come back to life. They spend time working on Kathy’s garden, and it does begin to blossom. Izzy’s first real vocal communication to Annie happens in the garden, and as such the garden symbolizes happiness and growth.
One thing that does not blossom, however, is a tree that Nick and Izzy planted on the day of Kathy’s funeral. However, at the end of the novel, it does finally start to come alive. The tree that represents Kathy could not thrive while her loved ones were still suffering over her death. It is not until they begin to come to peace with her passing and learn to be happy again that the tree starts to thrive. In this way, the tree represents the idea that Kathy can only be a happy memory for her family once they deal with and heal from the pain of her death. Gardens and flowers require tending to grow, and as such, they are an apt symbol for the growth that occurs in the novel after the characters work hard to overcome their demons.
Disappearances
Disappearance is a key motif in the novel. Izzy’s “disappearing” hand and her failure to use the fingers that she believes to have vanished serve as the most overt manifestation of disappearance, which is a theme that all of the main characters experience in some way throughout the novel. Annie becomes very aware of the degree to which her own identity has disappeared when her husband leaves her on the same day that her daughter leaves for Europe. She realizes that she has given up all of her hopes and dreams and desires to make them happy. She has done this to such an extent that she herself has disappeared as a person and can only be defined by the role she plays in other people’s lives.
Nick tries to disappear through addiction to alcohol. He does this because he is not able to cope with the loss of Kathy or with his inability to help Izzy through the loss. He tries to block his memories and his consciousness with alcohol. As such, he makes his feelings disappear, and in a more tangible way, he disappears from Izzy’s life, as he is always gone at work or at a bar. On a more literal level, Kathy suffers from mental illness and purposefully disappears through suicide before the novel begins. This is the disappearance that causes the most significant trauma for those around her because her death leaves a hole in their lives. She disappeared from the world, but her physical absence does not eliminate pain. Rather, it brings pain to those around her. She continues to appear to Izzy even after her death, showing that suicide did not allow for a complete disappearance because her loved ones keep her alive.
All of these adults have disappeared either on purpose or by accident because of their choices. Izzy does not have the same level of choice that the adults have because her child’s mind does not have the mental capabilities to make such choices. Her disappearance is something that happens to her due to her fear. She believes that her hands, fingers, and arms are disappearing, and this belief in a physical disappearance symbolizes the more figurative disappearances that the other characters go through.
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By Kristin Hannah
