The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Parts 6-7

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Book Club Questions

Symbols & Motifs

The Tree

When Estele dies, Addie is dismayed that she is buried in a Christian cemetery rather than in the forest where the affectionately described “witch of the woods” belongs. In an effort to correct this, Addie transplants a sapling to a spot nearby her grave, and decades later it grows into a strong, sturdy tree. In addition to representing a fulfillment of Estele’s burial wishes, the tree is at that point one of the most rewarding “marks” Addie has managed to leave on the world. Moreover, the tree is a monument to a preindustrial Villon, for which Addie feels nostalgia despite how restricted she felt growing up there.

Given the profound and multifaceted symbolic importance this tree holds for her, Addie is devastated when she returns to Villon to discover someone chopped the tree down. In one fell swoop, Addie’s commemoration of Estele, Villon, and her own ability to contribute something to the world are cut to the ground. Even Luc is touched by the cruelty of it all, telling Addie two words he never spoke before and will never speak again: “I’m sorry.” Perhaps the only comfort would be if the tree, not unlike Addie herself, was used to make the pages of a classic work of literature—forgotten and invisible yet crucially important to the spread of art and ideas.

The Wooden Bird

Addie’s father’s wooden bird is a totem representing different things to her at different stages of her long life. When Addie enters the woodshop shortly after her curse sets in, Addie steals the bird as a memento. At the time, she does not realize the importance of this act, the first of countless thefts she will commit, whether out of necessity or fancy. For all the negatives dictated by the curse, stealing is one of the few things Addie can do—after all, as Luc explains to her once, a successful theft is the “absence of a mark” (71).

The bird also represents hope and promise. On that day in the woodshop, Addie drops the bird and breaks its wing. Almost immediately, the bird is mended, a small mercy in a life full of hardship. Moreover, the bird is the first vessel through which Addie subverts her inability to make a mark. After Addie loses the bird—which broke irreparably when a Parisian landlady tossed it out of an apartment—it reappears as a template for a famous sculpture Addie finds on display in London’s National Gallery. Although Addie makes this mark wholly on accident, soon she is able to leave her impression on art and artists with intention. Aside from her desire to defeat Luc, her role as a muse and later as a full-fledged artist animates her as she endures an eternal forgotten lifetime.

Luc’s Green Eyes and Addie’s Freckles

On Luc’s face and Addie’s face, there are competing symbols that express the dynamics of their tumultuous relationship. Though he is cool and collected in every other physical way, Luc’s green eyes betray his inner emotional life. Given that this is his only external weakness, Addie becomes a student of these eyes, divining meaning from every gradation and glimmer.

In turn, Addie’s freckles—which are said to resemble a constellation of seven stars—emerge as “marks” she manages to leave in various works of art across the centuries. The images of these freckles are so enduring that they even capture the attention of Bea, a graduate student born three centuries later who decides to write her thesis on the mysterious woman with the constellation on her face.

Palimpsest

Palimpsest is a term for a manuscript that is scratched clean of its writing to make room for new writing. In many cases, faint etchings of the original writing can still be seen underneath the new marks. Before learning the word itself, Addie thinks of this concept upon entering Le Mans for the first time in over a decade; although the faint remnants of the city she remembers are still visible, they are largely obscured by newer architecture and infrastructure.

Given Addie’s curse, the term holds enormous symbolic relevance for her. The Greek translation of palimpsest is “scraped clean and ready to be used again”—a tragically apt description of Addie’s post-curse existence. Over the course of her long life, however, she finds ways for the erased indentations she leaves to endure and remain visible long after she is forgotten. Thus, Addie creates palimpsests everywhere she goes, leaving behind faded ideas that are forgotten yet still present in the world’s collective subconscious.