57 pages • 1 hour read
Kristin HannahSummer Island: A Novel
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2001A 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
The Wind Lass
The Wind Lass, Dean and Eric’s childhood sailboat, highlights The Healing Power of Forgiveness. The Wind Lass had always represented an imaginary future for Eric and Dean, one where “they’d both imagined growing old on this boat, bringing wives and children and grandchildren aboard” (153). However, neither Eric nor Dean are married, and Eric will never live to see old age. Despite not being able to fulfill their childhood dream, Dean sees the Wind Lass as the vehicle to repair their brotherly relationship: “He’d take this forgotten, once-loved boat and return it to its past glory. If he could get Eric out here for an afternoon—just that, a single afternoon—maybe the wind and the sea could take them back in time” (153).
Ultimately, the sailboat is unable to transport the characters, instead ushering them into the future. Dean and Eric are able to reconcile before Eric’s death. Following their excursion on the sailboat, Ruby is finally able to tell Dean she loves him. This leads to Dean proposing to her and the consummation of their relationship on the boat. Through seeking forgiveness from Eric and giving it to Ruby, Dean can finally live a fulfilled and happy life on the island.
Nora’s Letters
Nora’s letters to her readers represent The Pain of Family Secrets and Estrangement. Ruby spends most of her life being extremely angry about her mother’s writing career and jealous of the people she helps, feeling that she, and not Nora’s audience, should be the object of Nora’s care. She speaks disparagingly of her mother’s career: “That’s easy. She’d step on your grandmother’s throat to get ahead. Nothing—and no one—matters to her, except herself” (62). Ruby’s anger masks the pain she feels at losing her connection and bond with Nora at such a young and formidable age.
As Nora reads some of her mother’s best letters, she is able to reconnect with her:
As Ruby continued to read the columns, she noticed that her mother’s mail changed gradually from household-hint questions to earnest, heartfelt questions about life. Ruby had to admit that her mother was good at this. Her answers were concise, wise, and compassionate. Ruby began to hear her mother in the column. Not the sophisticated, greedy, selfish Nora Bridge, but her mother, the woman who’d told Ruby to wear her coat, or brush her teeth, or clean her room (187).
Ruby can now see the letters as a gateway to healing the pain, secrets, and estrangement in their family instead of as an obstacle, allowing her to finally find peace with Nora.
Ruby’s Article
Throughout the novel, Kristin Hannah includes italicized text from Ruby’s tell-all for Caché magazine. The article emphasizes The Consequences of Fame and Maintaining Appearances. Ruby decides to write the article for two reasons: first, to seek revenge against her famous mother, and second, to gain fame for herself. As she writes—and learns more about Nora’s complicated past—she experiences growth, realizing that fame is not necessarily what she wants anymore:
The joke is on me, it seems. I can’t get out of this deal. I have to deliver the article as promised or some corporate Mr. Big will sue me until I bleed. And I will lose my mother, this woman whom I’ve waited and longed for all of my life, whom I’ve alternately deified and vilified. Whatever we could have become will be gone. And this time it will be all my fault. The whole world will see the bankruptcy of my soul (359-60).
By the end of her article, Ruby realizes that fame will not heal her, and, instead, will harm her relationship with Nora. However, Ruby is wrong about the article’s impact. By publishing it with her mother’s approval and support, the exposé gives Ruby fame in a more controllable manner—a book deal—and helps fix Nora’s damaged reputation, leading both women to be happy and at peace. Through the article, the novel shows how telling the truth—both honestly and kindly—leads to positive things.
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