It’s just…The thing I like about poetry is that it can mean whatever it is you want it to mean.”
-- Rebecca (chapter 4)

Importance: Poetry becomes Rebecca’s only escape from the confines of reality. In her role as a mother, Rebecca must assign meaning to everything. She attempts to plan for the future, explain Andrew’s adoption, rationalize her divorce from Christopher, and understand why Andrew must suffer for his race. Although Rebecca suggests that poetry can mean anything, she still strives to find something significant about which she can write. After Priscilla dies, Rebecca finally experiences raw emotion worthy of poetic expression. When Rebecca wins awards for her poetry, Christopher says her work is about nothing other than poetry itself. Rebecca’s readers, and Rebecca herself, interpret her poetry differently, thereby validating Rebecca’s statement that a poem’s meaning varies depending on who reads it.

Rebecca worried about her...
-- Rebecca (chapter 8)