Ghosts

Throughout the narrative, ghosts symbolize the things about which one does not want to think. Marin in particular felt that Gramps’s ghost was haunting her when she was staying in the motel. Marin is also a big fan of the novel Jane Eyre, which features several ghosts. Marin is curious about the nature of hauntings, whether ghosts themselves are the perpetrators of what individuals feel haunts them.

The color yellow

The color yellow represents love and new life in LaCour’s novel. In Chapter Eight, Marin mentions yellow butterflies, which in many cultures symbolizes new life or transformation. It is also notable that the memory Marin recovers in the final chapter involves her as an infant grasping her mother’s yellow shirt. In both these instances, yellow evokes feelings of warmth and love.

Birds

In Chapter 28, the bird that appears symbolizes the free-ness that Marin...