Art

Art is one of the most important motifs in the novel. Each part of the novel opens with a page dedicated to describing a work of art that relates to Addie or Henry’s life. Part One opens with an illustration of a sculpture called Revenir created by Arlo Miret. Arlo found his inspiration for the piece on the streets of Paris in the winter of 1715. He found Addie’s wooden bird that she stole from her father’s workshop. Miret’s artwork moves Addie deeply. The narrator says, “The artist, Arlot Miret, a man she never knew, never met, and yet here he is, with a piece of her story, her past. Found, and made into something memorable, something worthwhile, something beautiful” (77). Additionally, the fifth bird in the sequence of the sculpture is about to take flight. This mirrors how Addie metaphorically takes flight in...