45 pages • 1 hour read
Louise PennyA Fatal Grace
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Three Pines
The village of Three Pines acts as a symbol of peace and serenity far away from the stress of urban life. The warmth of the village interiors stands in stark contrast to the frigid temperatures of Quebec province. Although winter can be a beautiful season, cold can kill. Three Pines seems impervious to that danger. That is, until two murders interrupt the setting’s pastoral simplicity.
Despite the underlying violence of the story, Three Pines retains its sense of innocence and magic throughout. Clara views Three Pines as “the enchanted village of her childhood.” (14-15). Myrna, too, views Three Pines as a place of enchantment: “Perhaps this was like Brigadoon. Perhaps it only appeared every number of years, and only to people who needed to see it” (16). Even Gamache views the village as a place that “promis[es] protection against a world sometimes too cold” (406).
Li Bien Ball
The Li Bien ball is a Christmas ornament hand-painted by CC’s mother. It comes to symbolize a variety of concepts over the course of the book. Initially, CC describes Li Bien as an ancient oriental philosophy passed down through her family; therefore, the ball isn’t just an object but represents a way of life.
Later, in a flashback to CC’s childhood, the reader becomes aware of the emotional pain CC associates with the ornament: “CC leaned into the ball, losing herself in its peace and calm and light” just before her mother is taken away to a mental institution (37).
CC associates peace, calm, and light with both the ornament and with her Li Bien philosophy; however, she has no idea how to achieve these states within herself.
Em takes a less comforting view of the ornament when she touches it. She associates it with El: “It was luminous and somehow unreal, its beauty imprisoned beneath the layer of invisible glass. It was both lovely and horrible. It was Eleanor Allaire” (360-61). Em sees the ornament as horrible because it reminds her of the fate awaiting her friend. Like the glass ornament, El was too fragile to survive in the harsh world that surrounded her.
Screaming Eagle
Three different women in the story use the screaming eagle as an emblem: It is Eleanor of Aquitaine’s heraldic device; El’s delusion causes her to identify with the historic queen, and she appropriates the emblem for herself in the form of a necklace; and CC creates a fictitious identity for herself as the daughter of the queen, so the eagle becomes her company logo.
When Gamache first sees the image, he finds it repellant:
Hooked beak, head in profile, mouth open in a scream [...] He supposed most companies chose logos that spoke of […] some positive quality. This one evoked rage. It looked like one pissed-off bird (120).
The eagle represents both El’s and CC’s inner rage. El’s anger is the result of her acute emotional sensitivity combined with mental illness. CC’s rage is based on her inability to control either the world or her own fury at it, just as she couldn’t control her mother’s temper.
The eagle necklace is the catalyst for El’s death. When CC recognizes it, she tries to rip it from her mother’s neck. El holds so tightly to her talisman that the eagle becomes imprinted on the palm of her hand.
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By Louise Penny
