50 pages • 1 hour read
Stephanie DanlerSweetbitter
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Wine
Content Warning: This guide contains discussion of drug abuse, sex, violence, and mental-health stigmatizations.
Wine is a symbol for awareness, patience, and growth in this novel. One of the first lessons Tess learns about wine is how to let it breathe and interact with the air. This changes the taste of the wine for the better. This symbolically demonstrates that with patience and through interacting with the world around her, a person can become better too. Wine also becomes more valuable and higher quality with time. Though Tess is put in a box for her youth, the symbolism of wine’s growth over time implies that Tess will eventually grow out of her youth and be better for it. Like a fine wine, people can get better with time.
The Restaurant
The restaurant is both a setting and a symbol. Symbolically, the restaurant is a family. Staff members work so closely with one another, and the success of the restaurant is dependent on their symbiotic dynamics. The staff members all know secrets or rumors about one another. There are a lot of intermingling sexual and romantic dynamics between them as well. There is drama and love between them all. Thus, the restaurant is a symbol of teamwork, community, and family. But the restaurant is also a symbol of larger societal issues. The problems that arise in the restaurant, such as a predatory boss who wields the worker’s livelihoods, fighting, pain, and stress are all symptoms of the real world reflected in the inner workings of the restaurant. The restaurant is also a setting of metamorphosis for Tess. She grows physically and emotionally stronger through her work there. Though she learns that the “fifty-one percent” narrative is a fallacy, the restaurant nonetheless provides her with a valuable education in working with others, the pleasures of food and wine, the realities people keep hidden about themselves, and her ability to work well under stressful conditions.
New York City
New York City is both a setting and a symbol in this novel. It is a symbolic place of growth and inclusion for Tess in her coming-of-age story. New York City is a city in which millions of people live on top of one another and yet paradoxically retain anonymity. The anonymity of the city allows Tess to both be a part of something larger than herself and the freedom to pursue her pleasures and her thoughts without the judgement of others.
