13 Little Blue Envelopes

Grief is one of the main emotions explored in 13 Little Blue Envelopes. Ginny and Richard both experience grief, and each character responds to their grief in different ways. Through these varied manifestations of grief, the novel asserts that grief is deeply personal. The novel concludes by reinforcing the importance of community or support during the grieving process, thus underscoring not only the personal nature of grief but also the value of expressing grief to loved ones.

For much of the novel, Ginny’s grief over Aunt Peg’s death manifests as denial. Ginny doesn’t mention to Peg’s friends—like the owner of 4th Noodle in New York and the owner of Les Petits Chiens in Paris—that Peg has died unless they already know. Ginny supposes that “there [i]s no reason to tell […] she c[an] barely believe it herself” (10). Instead, Ginny prefers to imagine that Peg is “out there in the wild somewhere” (284), thriving and living an adventurous life. This approach allows Ginny to postpone the grieving process, waiting to confront the full reality of Peg’s death until she is ready to do so. Ginny’s approach underscores the personal nature of grief, as her denial aligns with her immaturity at the novel’s beginning. It also aligns with her cautious tendencies; it is in Ginny’s nature to wait to confront a problem until she has thought it through and feels fully prepared. However, Ginny is forced to face her grief when she loses Peg’s final letter and when Richard announces that he and Peg were married. These two events solidify the truth of Peg’s death in a way that nothing else has. Unable to put it off any longer, Ginny is overcome with grief. She seeks comfort from both Keith and Richard. Their company, advice, and empathy help her to process her grief. Her new relationship with grief manifests itself in the final pages of the novel in her letter to Peg. Here, she expresses her anger, love, and forgiveness to Peg and exhibits a confident, forward-looking attitude. Through Ginny’s grief journey, the author demonstrates the personal, complex nature of grief and also underscores the importance of loving support when dealing with grief.

Richard also grapples with the grief of losing Peg. Unlike Ginny, however, he is not in denial about her loss. Instead, Richard keeps Peg’s room exactly as she left it, and he even attempts (and fails) to keep her plants healthy on his front stoop. Peg’s room and her plants serve as a constant reminder of her absence. Richard seems stuck in his grief, the rest of his home dark and messy, with only Peg’s room displaying any bright colors. Richard works a lot, and the reader does not see him doing anything else; he doesn’t socialize or spend time with friends. It takes Ginny’s arrival to shake him out of his grief; her need for him seems to wake him up. Ginny soothes Richard’s loneliness when she tells him that Peg did truly love him. He responds to this news with a smile and a hug, expressing his joy at being Ginny’s uncle. Additionally, selling Peg’s artwork serves as a metaphorical “letting go” for both characters, as Richard even comments that the art depicting her final days isn’t a reminder that either of them should dwell on any longer. As the novel closes, Ginny plans to gift half of Peg’s money to Richard in an indication that the two of them will maintain a relationship in the future. Although Richard’s grief looks different than Ginny’s, it is the community that they offer each other that brings him out of it.

In the novel, Ginny has three main relationships: with Aunt Peg, with Richard, and with Keith. Ginny’s relationship with Peg was a long-term, deeply loving relationship in which Ginny trusted Peg implicitly. Peg knew this and relied on Ginny’s trust, as her travel “game” with the envelopes is essentially a trust exercise; she asks Ginny to take uncharacteristic risks and to travel without knowing where she’ll end up. With Richard and Keith, Ginny is forming new relationships, and trust must be earned. In both cases, Johnson establishes trust as the foundation of strong relationships by exploring how trust is formed, what it looks like when it is broken, and how trust must run both ways.

The premise of 13 Little Blue Envelopes relies on trust. Aunt Peg asks Ginny to leave home without money, without a way to contact her family in the States, and without knowing when she’ll be home. This facilitates an exciting adventure for Ginny but requires that Ginny trust Peg’s discretion and her planning. Ginny does. This is evidence of her strong relationship with Peg. Peg is someone who Ginny has looked up to and loves deeply. Ginny’s blind trust in Peg is also evidence of Ginny’s youth. It isn’t until she’s encountered a few sticky situations that she starts to wonder if “Aunt Peg had screwed this one up” (226). Later, in speaking with Richard, Ginny opens up more about Peg’s sometimes untrustworthiness, saying, “She always promised me she would be there […] For high school, college. She would promise things and then just not do them. And just leave without telling anyone” (302). Ginny’s grief over Peg is complicated by the feelings of betrayal and abandonment that Peg caused by violating Ginny’s trust. Johnson explores the nuances of trusting relationships by centering the novel on a relationship where the trust is not perfect. Despite these missteps, Ginny trusts Peg because she knows that Peg loved her and had her best interests in mind. She also chooses to keep trusting Peg because she likes the people and things that Peg has brought into her life. The novel asserts that trust is essential for strong relationships and that it can be renewed or restored where there is love and good faith.

The author also explores the process of forming trust from the ground up in new relationships by depicting Ginny’s growing relationships with Richard and Keith. In both cases, the fragile new trust is broken. Keith breaks Ginny’s trust when he steals from Mari. Richard breaks Ginny’s trust when he uncaringly blurts out that he and Peg were married after having kept the information secret. In turn, Ginny breaks his trust by running away. These examples underscore the difficulty of establishing trust in new relationships and also emphasize now necessary trust is for those relationships to move forward. In each case, the characters re-establish trust through honest conversation, a necessary step before their relationships can progress. In these new relationships as well as Ginny’s long-term relationship with her aunt, Johnson investigates what trust looks like in different contexts and what happens when it is broken.