OK this book was amazing, it was such a beautiful story, and I noticed that all throughout there was this idea of endings and beginnings, with May and April ending their lives, and Lily starting a new life. It seems as if a loss amounts to a new gain. There are little sprinklings of this all throughout the story, even within the wording itself. I noticed that all of the sister’s names are from spring or summer, months of prosperity and rebirth, beginnings. Also, Lily and Rosaleen have come to join them, with Lily’s name doubling as a flower and Rosaleen sounding a bit like Rose the flower, there are ties here that are undeniable. However, there are also a lot of endings. June works by playing at funerals and using music to help someone say good-bye to their mortal lives. This idea of death is unsettling to me as the reader, but what comforts me is this idea of the life after death, the heaven and hell. Well I guess not even that, I guess the notion that there is a sorted place where everyone can go after life makes me feel as if we are not so much ending our existence as we are commencing forth into a new adventure. Although I don’t believe in this in my own life, cause I really just don’t know about what happens after we die, but in the book, on paper, in Lily’s words its nice to think that there is a place to go when you’re done.
Thinking about this idea of rebirth I thought back to my topic of social issue about pregnancy in older women. I found out that there was this woman who got pregnant with twins by In vitro Fertilization when she was in her 70’s, and she spent all of her life’s earnings so she could have someone to carry on the family name, fully knowing that she was going to die before her children were fully grown. It was almost as if she wanted to thank the Gods for letting her have a full life by creating a new one. I think this idea of religion, both in and out of the book just encourages society to never stop creating because in all of the different God’s and books of prayer, all religion acknowledges that we will all die. Its crazy to think about that, but that also supports the celebration of new life. I mean, on a broader scale every mother does this when she has a child, she starts something new, and eventually she passes on. No matter what age, we all start and end. But, all of us in one way or another give something or start something, planting a part of ourselves into this big bad world; and after we die a new story begins and we are not forgotten. All animals do this to, we are actually the only creatures that can become a parent at any age, all other organisms reproduce and usually let their young go or die shortly after.
This ties back to my previous idea about the book and how Lily feels that nature completes her, and I’m realizing now that I think what draws her in, is that cycle of life so intricately laid out in front of us all to see, nothing to hide. This idea is even represented within May’s death since she drowns herself in the little pool of water in the forest behind the house, letting the water take her, and I even think in some ways balancing out life in the story and having Zach come back. One drifting into another, Mother Nature is the equivocator of all in this book. I was sort of thinking about this with the weather in Brooklyn right now, and how a new layer of stark white snow covers up the old ugly snow. The snow covers up the bad with a new beginning only to become ugly and grey like layers under it, and again and again. Thinking broader this reminded me of how life never stops and how we kinda do the same thing in a billion different ways over and over again, trying a new direction and tactic each time, a new beginning going over our mistakes and mishaps, sometimes learning from them.
After all that’s sort of what Lily realizes at the end of the book, she lets Mary help her, she lets August help her, she lets Rosaleen help her, and she helps herself. Lily took away her mother, but it also gave her an opportunity to realize that no one person can lead you in life, all different people inspire and push you to move forward. She realizes that we don’t have time in life to stop and dwell in our mistakes. A new coat of snow covers them and we become clean and beautiful again. We are constantly repenting, and we are constantly making new mistakes because an ending leads into another beginning.
This string of life and death, creation and combustion ties the book tightly together, letting Lily be at ease with her wrong doings, but also reminding her to never forget them.
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