Pair of Death Announcements

This pair of death announcements that appears in the London newspaper represents the division in the Leonides family. They comprise an early clue that Aristide’s children and grandchildren did not like his young wife, Brenda.

The Crooked House

Sophia uses the idea of a crooked house to describe the fallibility of her family members. She blames their imperfections on living in a way that did not allow them to grow strong and independent. Instead, they were all twisted and tangled up in each other’s lives.

Eserine

The eserine found in Aristide’s eye drops represents death and murder. When Josephine asked her grandfather about the warning label on his eye drops, he explained that if he were injected with the eye drops, he would probably die. Because Aristide told Josephine about the poisonous nature of the drops in the presence of...