Maeve Murray Carlow University M.F.A.

. in Creative Writing Practicum Semester 1, April 12, 2012 Jane Coleman, Mentor Critical Essay #3 Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman

Imagery and Symbolism Doesnt Make a Collection of Stories a Novel Like many readers trying to decide which book to pick up next, I read the back cover to aid me in my decision. Right away, it becomes obvious that Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman is a collection of short stories, and not a novel. The synopsis tells us that, Over the course of two centuries, many will call [Blackbird House] home, each linked by the past left between its walls. Given that the book is only 225 pages long, we know were in store for many different stories of many different people, and not a generation-crossing saga. While this approach works, and I certainly find validity in the last part of the synopsis, each generation is connected to the underlying lessons of love, shattering secrets, and the enduring power of hearth and home, I question how connected it all is. If anything, the consistent juxtapositions of one family to another points out how differently people can experience the same place. The connections between the stories have less to do with the past left between [the] walls and more to do with imagery and symbolism. Since the Blackbird House is the only character in common with all the short stories, we of course need to find out how it all started. The first chapter tells of how John Hadley builds the farm with his wife and two sons, and how all he wants is to put the dangerous life of a fisherman behind him. The Hadley family starts us off with tragedy a widow who loses everything and

Maeve Murray must tend to the farm herself. Its worth noticing that the namesake of the book is never actually

mentioned in the book; the farm is never referred to as Blackbird House. A curious reader might wonder about this, but one need only know the symbolism of the blackbird to understand Hoffmans book title. Its commonly thought of as a good omen, or to signify a lesson being learned after deep thought and consideration. Knowing this, we are immediately confused by the blackbirds first appearance in the book just as a father and son drown, and a second son spends years in overseas prison. This is hardly a good omen, but what of a lesson to be learned? For that, readers must wait until the end of the book. Each story shares the farm in common. Some families that live there only use it as a summer house, while others raise their children there. Some of them are well-off, and others labor day and night to keep afloat. A house is a good commonality to have, but without family lineage making obvious generational connections, this reader fails to see how each [family] is linked by the past left between [the houses] walls. In fact, we learn very little about the house itself. We know it is white, that there is a barn, a summer kitchen, a pond, and a red pear tree on the property, and that the only way to get to it is by a long dirt road. The house itself its interior, furnishings, style is not thoroughly described. The short stories use the house as a common thread, but for the purpose of the book (that being underlying lessons of love, shattering secrets, and the power of hearth and home), it is unnecessary. Blackbird House as a character reminds me of another certain proclaimed main character that played very little part in the books actual development: Olive Kitteridge. But while both characters are unnecessary links between short stories, there is a distinct difference between Blackbird House and Olive Kitteridge. Blackbird House plays a dual role as character and place, and Hoffman never makes the assertion that these underlying lessons are learned as a result of

Maeve Murray living at the farm; she does something much simpler and founded she tells separate stories with similar motives. More than that, she connects them through images and symbolism to send a particular message. The house itself is a symbol of stability and dreams. Owning a house means having a handle on ones life, and the direction necessary to propel it forward. In each story, a character acquires Blackbird House to achieve a goal. They wanted a summer home, a house to raise

children, or a farm to care for, and while these characters are inevitably met with their fair share of problems, they nonetheless come out with something they didnt have before a spouse, a grandchild, an understanding of love, or new hope. These things dont occur because of the house, but the house does stand through time as a firm anchor, keeping people together and sometimes drawing others in. Nature plays a substantial role as well, although it is not used as symbolism, but imagery. The pond behind the house is mentioned often, with all sorts of different emotions playing out before it. Ruth lies beside it and cries for the loss of her husband, Violet cuts ice out of it year after year to maintain a semblance of routine and normalcy, and Jamie and Roslyn throw Hanks body into it to conceal a crime. There is sadness, hope, secrecy. Beneath the still surface of the pond, anything can lie in wait, and anything can be put into it. It is exactly what each character needs it to be at the right moment. When Violets horse breaks through the ice and drowns, it ends her charade, bringing her closer to the real world that she tried to ignore. When Hanks body sank, it gave Roslyn a means of escape from an abusive relationship and hope for a life afterward. The brambles and weeds around the farm served as a visual reminder of the state of affairs with the person living within clean when all was well and wild when it was not. The sea and the easterly storm were visions of danger and chaos, swallowing up dreams and occasionally spitting them

Maeve Murray back out. The people of Cape Cod had a strong relationship with nature in the book, relying on it for everything from their livelihood to the cause of their grief. The red pear tree goes from being an image of hope and love for Ruth when her husband finds it for her, to an image of death and loss when Dean hangs himself from its branches. This transformation is symbolic of life itself moving from the start of a happy life to the end of an unhappy one. It demonstrates how everything can change with time, and that this occurrence is natural. All things have a beginning and an end.

The most notable image and symbol, however, is the white blackbird. Those who see it are always feeling less than stellar, and the people around them who cant see it are often those who cant see other things happening around them, like a persons secret unhappiness. Readers may assume that the white blackbird is the ghost of Isaacs blackbird, appearing only to those who are lost at sea, so to speak, with their troubles. It is unclear in each of the stories if the white blackbird is a real animal, or simply an image Hoffman uses to connect her stories to each other. In any case, the bird shows up repetitively and brings with it the same feelings of death and sadness every time. To say that the many stories of Blackbird House are loosely connected is an understatement. They link to each other merely by virtue of taking place in the same house with the same repeated images and symbols. Each story works as its own piece, and this reader doesnt think anything is gained by placing them all in a book together. In fact, something is lost in doing so. While tracing a place through time and experiencing it through different people is interesting, it leaves readers unfulfilled and grasping for a more solid ending. Blackbird House draws us in

Maeve Murray with its intrigue and life lessons, but then it drops us with the conclusion of the final short story, which does not wrap up the unresolved tensions that were built up in the others before it. Emmas decision not to leave with her friend, but to remain in Blackbird House and cook

like her mother used to is a fitting ending for that particular story, but not to a novel. Were left to our own devices. Did she sell the house afterward? Did she keep it? Did she actually learn something, or was she just trying to figure it out? These things arent answered for us, and perhaps if they had been, the book would have culminated into a final resolution that there are few things stronger than the desire to be home, a place where you are loved and safe. Instead, we must wonder. The final short story ends as vaguely as the rest, and so Im inclined to believe that Hoffman simply wrote the stories separately and then arranged them beside each other without adding anything afterward. Again, I am reminded of Olive Kitteridge, where the short stories were only loosely connected, could stand alone, and no overall conclusion was formed by the end. Blackbird House shares these issues, but for different reasons. Olive Kitteridge made claims that Olive was a pivotal character, or an axis that guided people around her, and it simply wasnt true. Blackbird House does not do this, but instead simply asserts that everyone who passes through the house learns similar life lessons. While this is true, its unnecessary to make Blackbird House a commonality, as the lessons threaded from story to story are not dependent on the house. They would have been learned anywhere. This is where something was lost by combining all the short stories into one book; they were linked, but not tied off. The edges were left open to fray, and thats something that shouldnt happen in a novel. Novels have definite endings, and Blackbird House simply did not. Its a collection of stories, not one story derived from the loose links existing between them.