Blankets

Craig and his brother Phil are getting bigger, and their parents decide to get another bed and create a second bedroom down the hall. From the very first night, Craig and Phil are uncomfortable being apart and find excuses to retreat to each other’s bed: the cold, the cubby hole. As they grow up, Craig admits that it became “inexcusable” (459) to rely on each other this way, and slowly the two brothers drifted apart. He explains to Raina that Phil, now 14, is basically a stranger to him despite living under the same roof. Raina hears from her mom that it is too late to save her parents’ marriage, and Raina falls ill on Craig’s last day with her due to stress. The two pack up Craig’s things, including the quilt, and Laura sobs as she hangs onto Craig and begs him to stay. Raina’s dad offers to drive Craig home and the drive is long, with stretches of plain field drawn to indicate the repetitive scenery.

They arrive at the meeting point, and Craig and Raina say goodbye while their parents chat. Both of them are upset to be parting ways, but they refrain from kissing for the sake of their parents. Craig whispers “thank you” (481) in Raina’s ear as they hug goodbye and then just like that, she is gone. Craig and his mom drive away, and an image of the car falling off the edge of the earth into clouds is drawn, showing the way that Craig feels like his entire life has just fallen apart.

When Craig gets home, he opens his suitcase to find a note from Raina inside the quilt that reads “I love you, too” (489) and he is momentarily elated. His conversation with Raina inspires him to reach out to Phil, and he goes to talk to him and asks about whether Phil still draws. When he says he wants to see Phil’s drawings, Phil is shocked but agrees, and the two share a bonding moment looking at Phil’s funny drawings of lizards and people from his school. That night, Craig sleeps with the quilt tucked in beside hum, cuddling it like he would Raina if she were there.

Craig illustrates “The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato, which his teacher explains during class a few days later: “Since childhood, humans have been prisoners” (489), bound at the hands and feet, being entertained by shadow puppets that they are deceived to believe as real. In other words, people have little to no grasp of reality and only see what they are told to see. If they are allowed to be loose and truly grasp their surroundings, it would be a complete shock to the system. They may even deny it, despite it being right in front of their eyes.

This thought depresses Craig, and he draws a comparison between these prisoners and his own perception of his relationship with Raina. The truth comes crashing down when she calls him one afternoon to admit that she has too much on her plate to worry about a long-distance relationship. Craig is heartbroken, and as the snow melts around him and the landscape changes shape, his relationship with Raina slowly fades away. They try to maintain a friendship, but find they have little to say to each other when they call.

Eventually, Craig calls Raina to tell her goodbye, and he burns everything she gave him except for the quilt. He stores the quilt away in the cubby hole and moves out of his parents’ house at age 20. He returns home for Phil’s graduation a couple of years later, and the two of them reminisce and walk through the old fields together. Craig confides that he no longer considers himself Christian, although he does still believe in God.

They recall a cave they found that was there one day and seemingly gone a few days later, and Craig is relieved to know it was a real experience. He says to Phil, “that’s my comfort—that someone else was there and experienced the same thing” (539). It cuts to the image of him and Raina in the tree that Craig painted on her wall. The final illustrations in the chapter and in the main story of the novel show Raina painting white over the painting before it finally disappears.