Nature

Much of the novel focuses on Marianne’s relationship with nature, specifically her connection with the living world and the few memories she has from childhood before her mother left. She cultivates a sense of tranquility, happiness, nostalgia, and comfort from her interactions with the natural landscape of her home in Wales and she always enjoys returning for the Wakes even though it reminds her of some of her most painful memories.

Stylistically, each of the chapters opens with a nursery rhyme of sorts, focused on nature. At the beginning of the eighth chapter titled “What was lost in the long grass,” Hughes rhymes “Green peas, mutton pies/tell me where my mother lies/I’ll be there before she dies/Green peas, mutton pies” (47). It is never stated explicitly that the beginning chapter poems are rhymes Marianne recited as a child, but they tie into...