Importance of Fire

Smoke and fire represent traumatic disaster, as fire imagery is directly evoked during Heloise’s meltdown. In the novel’s prologue, Lily suggests, “the smell of smoke will always be the scent of things gone wrong,” which the reader later discovers is because Heloise attempted to set the Trentham house on fire (4). The Trentham artist community’s downfall is directly correlated with fire, as Lily suggests that the commune’s depletion “started with fire” (151). Because of fire’s devastating ties to dark events in the novel, fire symbolizes disaster, endings and despair.