52 pages • 1 hour read
Lisa JewellThen She Was Gone
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017A 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
Mother-Daughter Relationships
Jewell highlights mother-daughter relationships throughout the novel as a motif that contributes to the theme of family relationships. Jewell includes four generations of Mack women in the novel: Laurel’s elderly mother, Laurel, Hanna and Ellie, and Poppy. As the protagonist, Laurel’s relationships with the other generations of Mack women change throughout the novel.
First, Laurel sees a positive side of her mother, who encourages Laurel toward happiness with Floyd in an uncharacteristic burst of optimism, and the two women share special moments together before Laurel’s mother eventually passes away.
Next, Laurel’s relationships with her own two daughters are unbalanced—she prefers Ellie to Hanna and resents the fact that Hanna is the daughter who remains after Ellie disappears. Ellie is forever frozen in Laurel’s mind as the carefree, picture-perfect daughter, while she brands Hanna as the antisocial and cynical daughter that rejects a relationship with Laurel. However, by the end of the novel, Laurel realizes she misjudged Hanna. She eventually sees Hanna’s shining personality and recognizes that her own resentment led to the deterioration of their relationship. She makes things right with Hanna and is finally able to enjoy a meaningful relationship with her remaining daughter.
Finally, Poppy offers Laurel a second chance at motherhood. As Ellie’s daughter, she is Laurel’s own flesh and blood, and acting as Poppy’s mother gives Laurel’s life renewed joy and purpose. Jewell’s creation of several mother-daughter relationships and dynamics throughout the novel contributes to the theme of family and shows how Laurel’s relationships with her mother and daughters heal concurrently with her own grieving heart.
Smells
Jewell uses smells throughout the novel as a characterization tool. She identifies characters by their scents and creates associations among characters using scent imagery. For example, using Poppy and Ellie’s perspective, Jewell uses Noelle’s strange scent of “cooking oil and unwashed hair” (18) to contribute to her characterization of Noelle as a disturbed person. Her unusual and unpleasant odor tells the reader there is something off about Noelle; Ellie and Poppy sensed it, and the reader can sense it, too. Poppy tells Floyd that she doesn’t like the way Noelle smells, which acts as a red flag to Floyd that there is a “failure to bond” between Noelle and Poppy (296).
Furthermore, recurring descriptions of the odors of particular places and people help the reader make connections in the mystery and piece together the details of Ellie’s disappearance. As soon as Ellie enters Noelle’s house, she notices that it smells just like Noelle, “earthy and slightly sour” (223). Jewell shows the reader there’s something strange about Noelle through Ellie’s perception of her smell and the way her house has a disagreeable odor. Jewell makes another connection between characters and events when Laurel kisses the top of Poppy’s head and notices that Poppy’s hair smells exactly like Ellie’s. This contributes to the reader’s deduction that Poppy is Ellie’s daughter and drives Laurel to search for more answers regarding Ellie’s disappearance. Jewell uses smells to create vivid characters and to steer the reader’s judgment of characters. Scent descriptions also aid the reader in acting as a detective, hinting at the details of Ellie’s disappearance for the reader to make connections.
Clothing
Clothing symbolizes character personalities and transformations in the novel. Jewell uses clothing to alert the reader to the peculiarities surrounding Poppy and Floyd, as well as to build suspense. Laurel immediately notices that Floyd’s fashionable clothing resembles Paul’s, and it’s part of what makes him attractive to her. At Laurel’s birthday dinner, Jewell casually mentions that everyone shares a laugh when Paul and Floyd notice their clothing is almost identical, down to their matching socks. Although the similarities between Paul and Floyd’s clothing seem to be coincidental, Jewell later reveals that Floyd’s clothing choices are calculated. Noelle mentions several times the way she hated Floyd’s poor fashion sense, and Floyd admits that he studied Paul’s look from seeing him in the news to imitate his style. Floyd superficially transforms into a charming, attractive man to win Laurel’s attentions. His true nature, the slightly nerdy, social outcast he was with Noelle, is hidden beneath his polished clothing.
Jewell also depicts Poppy’s clothing as indicative of her personality and transformation over the course of the novel. When Laurel first meets Poppy, her stiff and formal strikes her as strange and out of place for a young girl of nine years. Poppy’s clothing acts as an outward representation of her extraordinary maturity level: impressive, yet abnormal, and a bit unsettling. Laurel takes Poppy shopping and buys her colorful and relaxed clothing more suitable for her age, symbolizing the first step towards Poppy’s transformation into a flourishing, happy young girl.
Finally, clothing marks Laurel’s transformation on her journey towards healing. In the years since Ellie’s disappearance, Laurel never neglected her appearance; however, her clothing is mostly dark and dull. For her birthday dinner, Poppy helps Laurel choose a floral halter dress, symbolizing the beginning of her transformation toward hope and recovery from her sorrow. Jewell repeatedly uses clothing to symbolize internal changes within characters. Her descriptions of clothing represent the inward state of characters and show the transformations they undergo throughout the novel.
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By Lisa Jewell
