Urbanity against Nature

Tana French uses the natural world to represent a refuge from the chaos of urban life. Toby’s introductory narration claims that he was “lucky” to have Ivy House (8). Although the reader is unaware by this point in the novel of what Ivy House is, it is clearly tied to the natural world, as Toby uses natural imagery to describe his relationship with the house. The details surrounding Ivy House are, in his mind, “stark and runic as black twigs on snow” (8). The reader later learns that Ivy House is literally separate from the city in which it is located, thanks to its unique architecture which creates an “unassailable silence” (100).

The introduction of the outside world into Ivy House symbolizes a broader intrusion of the urban and mundane into the natural and enchanted. This theme of conflict and invasion is symbolized by the feeling...