Love and Loss

Love and Loss is perhaps the largest theme within the book. In the beginning there is Turtle who not only is losing her old life by being uprooted to New Jersey but is emotionally closed off. Aside from the love she holds for her mother and Archie it’s clear in chapter one that Turtle has little affection or tolerance for anyone else. She feels people are rotten, especially kids, who caused a great deal of hardship for her, even causing her mother to lose a job or two with their lies. Upon coming to Key West, Turtle feels loss even more acutely. She not only must find a way to live with the new life she is handed but ends up losing the security she found in her mother by being on her own in Aunt Minnie’s house with the boys.

The...