What is Heart

The use of the heart as a symbol signifies the ways in which hearts are opened and prodded both physically and metaphorically. In the novel the anatomical human heart is always either being opened, inspected or operated on and, therefore, closed. The opening chapter of the novel, for example shows the audience Luke examining the ventricles and aortas showing how the heart operates physically and the anatomical heart slowly becomes a symbol for all of the ways love either tears open the heart, stitches it back up in order to stop the bleeding or even inspects the heart and asks it what it wants. The fact that the opening chapter is the image of Luke examining the inner workings of a heart suggest that not only will the physical heart be probed and inspected in the story, but the metaphorical heart will as well.