51 pages • 1 hour read
Kristin HannahThe Great Alone
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Deep Bond Between Mothers and Daughters
The relationship between Cora and Leni constitutes the center of the narrative. The strength of the mother-daughter bond surpasses all other considerations. Ernt’s absence during the war makes Cora and Leni rely on each other. Once he returns, his volatility and the isolation he enforces leads them to become each other’s source of support. As the new girl in a small Alaskan town, Leni’s main confidant is her mother. Leni returns this same support to her mother when they first move to Alaska. Leni senses that the pressure to survive overwhelms her mother. More than her confidant, Leni becomes her mother’s protector. More than once Leni intervenes to allay Ernt’s anger to the point of interposing herself between her parents.
Leni’s coming of age and Ernt’s abuse complicates this bond. As Leni falls in love and yearns for her freedom, she comes to resent her mother’s dependence on her father, as if her mother were a hostage. At the same time, Leni’s bond with her mother is stronger than her resentment. She continuously pushes her mother to leave Ernt out of concern for her life once his violence intensifies. After Cora sends Leni to hide from Ernt, Leni decides she cannot leave her mother and returns for her. For Cora’s sake, Leni decides that they need to hide her dead father’s body, a ghastly task. As Leni faces impending motherhood, she turns to Cora for support.
Cora herself has devoted her life to supporting and protecting Leni. Cora resents her parents for urging Cora to give Leni up for adoption, and this foregrounds Cora’s attachment to her daughter. Cora also thinks of providing for Leni, despite being subject to Ernt’s whims. Before they leave for Alaska, Cora swallows her pride and asks her parents for money, hiding this from Ernt. Cora also reacts with sympathy when Leni confesses her feelings for Matthew. She goes as far as to collude with Leni in hiding the relationship from Ernt, fashioning a plan so that Leni can leave to study at UAA with Matthew. Despite her twisted love for Ernt, Cora kills him when he attacks Leni. For Leni and her grandson’s sake, Cora returns to Seattle and mends her relationship with her parents. The depth of Cora and Leni’s bond unfolds through Cora’s anguish as she grows ill from cancer and faces her fear of leaving Leni alone. Leni’s reassurance that she’ll be all right is what gives Cora peace. Their bond extends beyond death since Cora’s final wish is that Leni return to Alaska where Cora knows Leni belongs.
The Rippling Effects of Trauma
Ernt and Matthew’s journeys parallel each other with respect to how trauma brings about change. Both men face life-altering events, but while Ernt’s trauma damages him irrevocably and isolates him, Matthew manages to develop meaningful, positive connections to others. Ernt, Leni learns from Cora, was a different man before the government drafted him into the Vietnam War. His capture and torture lead to his development of post-traumatic stress, which manifests as nightmares, a violent temper, and a growing paranoia. His PSTD makes him unable to hold down a job and inclines him to alienate his family from the community. Moving to Alaska was, in fact, a way to separate himself and his family from the rest of the country.
However, Alaska is a study in contrasts. While its inhabitants pride themselves on their independence, they are also a tight-knit group. Neighbors Tom and Large Marge intervene for Cora and Leni, arguing that Ernt needs to distance himself from his family to keep them safe. Ernt is unable to comply and eventually loses his job, returning home worse than he left. At first, Ernt finds his place with Mad Earl and his family, but as his mental health worsens and his ideas about isolation become more extreme, he ruins his relationship with them. By the end of the novel, Ernt has descended into madness, constructing a wall around his property to trap Cora and Leni inside. His violence not only intensifies towards Cora but spreads to Leni. Not being able to stand Leni suffering his violence, Cora kills him.
Matthew’s trauma also alters him throughout the novel, but his change underscores hope. After suffering the loss of his mother, Matthew is no longer the funny, happy-go-lucky boy Leni knew from school. Leni draws a parallel between Matthew and her father after Matthew confesses that after Geneva’s death, like her father, he has nightmares. He also reacts with violence when Leni tries to comfort him. Unlike Ernt, Matthew accepts that he needs distance to heal. His time at Fairbanks with his sister and aunt helps him come to terms with his loss and rekindle his relationship with his father as well as with Leni. Later, when Matthew faces the trauma of his accident, help from his family is integral to his movement towards recovery. While Matthew might have challenges, the narrative depicts him as a fighter who can support and care for others regardless of what he has endured.
The Alaskan Frontier’s Powers of Revelation
Leni’s article on Alaska mentions that the remote state’s harshness does not make character as much as it reveals it. Alaska’s frontier reveals Ernt’s darkness as well as Leni’s own grit. In Ernt’s case, Alaska’s isolation makes him cling tighter to destructive patterns of thinking, to the detriment of his connection with everyone around him. The narrative repeatedly shows that Ernt’s self-centered indulgence of his destructive mental patterns has terrible consequences for his family. For instance, his tendency to drink makes Ernt absent from home during a wolf attack that costs the Allbrights’ all their livestock. Later, his paranoia about Tom’s efforts to increase tourism in Kaneq jeopardizes his relationship with the rest of the town as well as with the Harlans. Increasingly alienated, Ernt descends into madness, constructing a wall around his property to trap his family.
However, the ruthless conditions in Alaska also give Leni an opportunity to demonstrate her dedication to help those she loves. Leni arrives in Alaska wary of the demands of living in the wilderness but with a willingness to help her family. Over the years, Leni grows up to not only survive on her own, but to be part of Kaneq. She works at Large Marge’s store and fills in as a substitute teacher at her school. After her mom’s car accident, Leni goes for help and saves her mother’s life. Leni also uses her survival skills to care for Matthew after his accident. The tenaciousness and selflessness that Alaska reveals in Leni means that she is unable to leave behind Alaska and the community she grew up in.
Related Titles
By Kristin Hannah
