Deep and Dark and Dangerous

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2007

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-12

Chapters 13-15

Chapters 16-18

Chapters 19-22

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Nightmares

The nightmare motif features heavily in this narrative, with both Ali and Emma experiencing similar recurring dreams. There is also an oblique allusion that Dulcie is having nightmares as well because she often has trouble sleeping. Sissy, who is responsible for their fitful nights, uses their dreams as a medium through which she can demand justice. Here, Hahn is drawing on the lore of ghosts using dreams to communicate with the living.

While Ali dreams of “three girls in a canoe, paddling out onto the lake” (5), Emma dreams of a ghost who “wants to go home, but [can’t because] she’s down deep, deep, deep in the water” (26). The repetition of these unpleasant dreams contributes to the narrative’s sense of unease and anxiety while also symbolizing the inescapability of the memories of the day Teresa died. Although Emma and Ali were not involved, their haunting brings to mind the Shakespeare quote “the sins of the father are to be laid upon the children” from The Merchant of Venice (Act 3, Scene 5). In Emma and Ali’s case, they are unable to escape the sins of their mothers’ part in Teresa’s death and lying about it for decades after. Despite the nightmarish quality of Ali’s dream, it also functions as a premonition by foreshadowing her, Emma, and Sissy wading out onto the lake. Although she is unaware of it at the time, it is a warning of sorts.

Bones/Skeletons

Emma talks about bones repeatedly throughout the narrative, often to the point of making the characters around her uncomfortable. Their unease is understandable because bones are symbolic of one’s mortality. Paradoxically, however, bones can symbolize one’s enduring presence after death. Hahn uses the latter interpretation of this symbol to represent Teresa’s bones keeping her tethered to the living world, thereby allowing her to linger beyond death in the form of Sissy. Emma’s talk about bones is also especially uncomfortable for Dulcie because it is a reminder that her and Claire’s silence is the reason Teresa’s bones are still unrecovered. Dulcie doesn’t need Emma to remind her, though, because her repeatedly painting bones in her artwork symbolizes that they are on her mind, too.

Emma also mentions skeletons, but so does Ali. In one scene, Ali imagines “skeletons wading out of the dark water and creeping toward the house, their bony arms outstretched” (131). This image symbolizes the figurative skeleton in Claire and Dulcie’s closet—the decades-long secret about Teresa’s drowning—that is emerging to expose them. Ali’s description of the skeleton’s movement has echoes of a zombie’s shambling lurch towards its prey, and the effect here is equally chilling.

Dolls and Teddy Bears

The use of childhood items like dolls and stuffed animals is common in the horror genre, creating a creepy contrast between the innocence of childhood and the danger or supernatural elements that lurk nearby. Throughout Deep and Dark and Dangerous, Hahn’s use of dolls and teddy bears as a motif contributes to the creepy atmosphere while also linking the present events at the cottage to those of the past. The most obvious example is Edith, the doll that Edith is so attracted to and that Sissy uses to lure the young girl. The full significance of this doll only comes out once the events from 30 years ago come to light: Edith is the same doll that Dulcie threw into the lake, spurring Teresa to jump in after it and drown. The memory of the doll so haunts Dulcie that she is compelled to incorporate dolls into her artwork as an adult.

Earlier in the book, Hahn uses two contrasting teddy bears to offer a clue into what happened at the lake so long ago. Shortly after their arrival at the cottage, Emma looks around and finds two teddy bears. The presence of these items—relics of an interrupted childhood—indicates that whatever occurred at the lake was so significant that the girls left without bringing all of their possessions with them. This revelation is one in a series of hints that Ali is about to uncover an awful truth about Dulcie and Claire’s past.