Heart-Shaped Box

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2007

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-12

Part 1, Chapter 13-Part 2, Chapter 22

Part 2, Chapters 23-31

Part 2, Chapter 32-Part 3, Chapter 41

Part 3, Chapter 42-Part 4

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Themes

Confronting Trauma

Heart-Shaped Box’s focal characters all suffer from trauma: Jude experienced physical abuse by his father, Martin; Marybeth experienced a sexual assault; and Anna was killed after years of sexual abuse by Craddock. While all three characters have learned to cope with trauma through suppression, in Anna’s case, Craddock’s supernatural suppression played a part in his abuse, “but he couldn’t completely wipe out the memories of what he’d done” (263). This incomplete suppression is a literalization of how Jude and Marybeth cope with their respective trauma. In the beginning, both have distanced themselves from their pasts physically and emotionally: Both have moved north and crafted new identities for themselves, and neither has fully shared their trauma with the other. Thus, their journey toward healing is built on opening up and trusting each other. As mentioned in the Background, ghosts in Gothic fiction represent the intrusion of past trauma on the present. Craddock’s ghost disrupts Jude’s life because he embodies many of his and Marybeth’s traumas. The ghost directly ties to Jude’s newfound trauma regarding Anna’s “suicide” but also evokes his own abusive father. Craddock’s sexual abuse also ties into Marybeth’s sexual assault, reinforced by his forced masturbation and placement of a phallic gun in her mouth. Thus, he symbolizes the emotional-psychological stakes for both Jude and Marybeth: If they don’t resolve their traumas, they will be destroyed.

Over the course of the novel, Jude and Marybeth learn to cope with these traumas by depending on each other. Jude initially distances himself from Marybeth to protect her and his own heart, but being selfless, she insists on helping him cope. During their final confrontation with Craddock’s ghost, he possesses Martin, symbolizing Jude’s struggle to face his history of abuse. However, a dying Marybeth’s plea of “Let. Us. Save. You” pushes him to trust and to defeat Craddock/Martin with Marybeth/Anna’s help (324). For Jude, the first step to coping with trauma is forming healthy relationships, rather than objectifying partners and pushing them away; this process includes recognizing Marybeth and Anna as individuals and as worthy of love and letting go of the latter and his related guilt. The final confrontation also frees Anna, who is given the opportunity to defeat her abuser and guide her niece, Reese, from beyond the grave. Overall, the focal characters are able to stop their cycles of abuse with empathy and honesty.

Responsibility in Ownership

Ownership is a fraught concept in the novel. Jude is frequently reminded that “The dead claim their own” (331), a refrain that suggests that everyone is eventually “claimed” by their choices. Here, “ownership” has a negative connotation, as it suggests that choices hold a deterministic power that cannot be altered by making different choices. Craddock’s suit is symbolic of this idea: Initially, the suit is a consequence of Jude’s treatment of Anna and her “suicide,” as no matter where he hides the suit, or tries to destroy it, he is unable to escape Craddock’s ghost. However, Jude is notably tricked into owning the suit. Anna’s “suicide” is ultimately revealed to be murder by Craddock and Jessica, reframing the suit’s symbolism as a shifting of blame. Thus, the novel raises questions of escaping choices and owning choices.

Craddock’s and Jessica’s fates suggest that consequences cannot be escaped, especially when one refuses to change. Jude is only able to learn what happened to Anna because he owns Craddock’s suit and doesn’t try to escape its consequences: “He had bought the dead man’s suit and the dead man, too—owned the ghost and the ghost’s past” (288). Unlike Craddock, he owns his part in Anna’s death, or, at least, his missed opportunity to help her; this logic also applies to his general treatment of partners, whom he objectifies with state-derived nicknames. Jude is plagued by guilt over his and Anna’s breakup but ultimately motivated to uncover her murder. His guilt-driven actions nearly kill him and Marybeth, but unlike Craddock and Jessica, they acknowledge that they are actively taking risks and “deserve whatever happens” (142). By contrast, Craddock is “killed” by Anna, and Jessica is arrested for exploiting her daughter, Reese—both failing to take responsibility for their actions in life (and death). While Jessica’s fate is complicated by her own hypnotism and sexual abuse by Craddock, the novel frames her adult self as taking an active part in Anna’s murder and Reese’s exploitation, which the novel deems inexcusable.

Construction and Concealment of Identity

Throughout the novel, identities are constantly constructed and concealed. Jude abandons his birth name, Justin Cowzynski, to distance himself from his father Martin’s abuse. He creates false identities not only for himself but also for the women in his life: Anna is nicknamed “Florida,” and Marybeth is nicknamed “Georgia.” Regardless of Anna’s acceptance of her nickname, Jude’s practice is misogynistic, as it reduces women to their birth states. This practice functions as concealment, an erasure of his girlfriends’ pasts. In this way, identity becomes a tool through which he isolates himself and others from difficult memories.

As much as constructed identities function as a shield, they can also serve as malleable self-expression. As Anna points out, even “Judas Coyne” is a pun (147), a reference to Judas Iscariot’s betrayal of Jesus in the Bible. Jude’s chosen name reflects his desire to reject his religious upbringing and pursue rock music. Speech is another malleable form of identity in the novel, concealing the past and helping characters shape their identities. Marybeth’s accent changes as she and Jude head south, indicating her connection to the region. He, too, changes his speech, using colloquialisms with Bammy that indicate familiarity with her and Marybeth’s culture. The novel’s most significant shift in identity is the couple’s mutual decision to stop calling Marybeth “Georgia.” This shift allows Jude to express his newfound tenderness. He also finds, as they deal with the literal ghosts of Anna’s past, that if he wants to truly love Marybeth, he cannot erase her roots through concealment: If their relationship is going to work, he must accept her past as she does his.