Entrapment

Throughout the collection, the author explores the multifaceted nature of entrapment through her narrators' relationships with their lovers, friends, and countries. In "The Stones of Sorrow Lake," the narrator and her boyfriend both end up trapped by their distinct versions of sorrow and grief. The lake of sorrow in Jackson's hometown threatens to ensnare the townspeople forever. As soon as the narrator's stone forms on her palm, she says, "I could already see my sorrow clearly, how it would tie me to this place" (48). Despite the way she ends up bound to the town, the narrator learns, like the other townspeople, how to laugh as she cries (44). Through this story, the author suggests that loss and love, sorrow and joy, are inextricable. One cannot exist without the other. Learning this exchange might allow the individual to survive, and liberate herself from life's difficulties.

In "The Man...