Fever Dream

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Pages 1-40

Pages 41-75

Pages 76-104

Pages 105-140

Pages 141-183

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Worms

The first sentence introduces what will be a key symbol throughout Fever Dream. Guiding Amanda through her memories, David says, “We’re looking for worms, something very much like worms, and the exact moment when they touch your body for the first time” (52). By “worms” he is referring to Amanda’s first contact with the poison. As a symbol, the worms bring to mind death, decay, and decomposition. They reflect how the poison eats away at Amanda’s body and slowly kills her. Furthermore, worms come from the natural world, indicating the danger that Amanda faces in the environment. Discussing the toxin as worms instead of describing the poison outright adds to the novel’s mystery. However, this obfuscation also reflects the hidden nature of the threat. Although the effects of pollution can be seen everywhere—in the dead animals, strange sicknesses, and frequent congenital disabilities—the residents of the town don’t address the problem directly. As Carla says, “People come down with things all the time” in the country (95-96), but the cause is never mentioned.

Water

Throughout Fever Dream, water appears as both a carrier of toxins and the thing that can bring relief from those toxins. David and the horse are first poisoned by contact with a contaminated stream. When Carla takes her son to the green house, the woman gives the distraught mother a glass of water, which brings “a little of [her] soul back to [her] body” (25). Later, Carla hears running water as the woman performs David’s treatment. Amanda and Nina are likewise sickened by water that Amanda believes is dew, and later, she thinks that she and Nina need a drink, that “poisoning is cured by drinking a lot of water” (153). As the most innocuous and essential substance, water symbolizes the depth of the town’s contamination, its invisibility, and inescapability. As David says, “The poison was always there” (169). It is all around them and impossible to avoid; even the town’s water system is sometimes contaminated, leading Carla to tell Amanda that “it [is] better not to use the tap water” when she first arrives (145).

Rope

Rope is used throughout the novel as a symbol of connection. The first image of rope appears when Carla takes David to the woman in the green house. To perform the treatment, the woman uses a “big spool of thin hemp rope” to bind David’s wrists (33). After the ritual, the bond between David and Carla is broken. When referring to the rescue distance, Amanda often describes it as a “rope that ties [her] to [her] daughter” (45), symbolizing a connection that traverses time and space. However, this connection is also broken at the end of the novel when Amanda dies. The final image of rope appears when Amanda’s husband goes to visit Omar. His house is full of things “hanging from rope, or […] tied together with it” (179), which he explains are his son’s doings. Whether David is himself or Nina or both, here the rope represents a child’s attempt to rebuild a connection with their absent mother.