Letters to Lily

Nora’s letters to Lily represent love, its constancy, optimism, and lyricism. Nora’s letters to Lily always include humor, poetic descriptions of the island and assurances that Poe is well, but they are not always entirely honest, often whitewashing the truth to make it more palatable for Lily. For instance, in her beginning letters to Lily, Nora tells Lily how wonderful Poe is and how well she is doing, when in fact Poe is behaving sullen and sarcastic. Noteworthy is the fact that Nora keeps writing letters, even when Lily tells her to stop. Nora's decision to keep writing the letters even when their recipient proves "fruitful" in the long run.

Cormorant

The cormorant Nora sees when she is writing Lily’s letter symbolizes fate. Nora describes the cormorant in her letter, how it “popped up in front of me, then slipped back...