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Elizabeth Strout’s novel, Olive Kitteridge, is filled with stories about the lives of regular people in Crosby, Maine. Throughout the stories, different characters are faced with adversity they are forced to deal with. While some handle their problems well and are able to cope with their hardships, others, even those with good intensions, do not find a happy ending.
The story “Tulips” encapsulates the a recurring theme of the book; life is uncertain and takes us down roads upon which we had never imagined ourselves having to travel, and while these obstacles may very in their severity, it is how one is able to cope with their individual adversity that will ultimately determine their happiness.
Also, the use of schadenfrude by characters is a common theme throughout many of the stories, and although Strout has shown the ineffectiveness earlier in the book, “Tulips” goes on to deliver the message of how to proceed through life after experiencing loss and after the realization that schadenfrude will not heal a person.
The story begins with an implication that the Larkin family of Crosby, Maine had experienced some sort of tragedy or embarrassment by the fact that Strout states, “People thought the Larkin couple would move after what happened.
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“ Amazing as always, gave her a week to finish a big assignment and came through way ahead of time. ”
(140) We learn later that the event was a particularly violent murder committed by Doyle, the son of Rodger and Louise Larkin. Rodger and Louise had become recluse since the event, which naturally intrigued the inhabitants of the small town.
However, after the initial period of interest, the people in town are quick to put the Larkin family out of their minds.
Strout quickly refers to life’s unpredictability and the average persons denial of this by the fact that people, “turned their heads away, not wanting to be reminded of what could happen to a family that seemed as pretty and fresh as blueberry pie. (141) She also uses terrific imagery to represent how every family and individual deals with loss and sadness at some point when she says, “[The Larkin’s] home and whatever story was inside it eventually receded so that their house . . . took on, over time, the nature of one more hillock in the dramatic rise and fall of the coastal landscape. ” (141) Expressed in this statement is the idea that although the Larkins experienced a tragedy that held the town‘s interest for a period, adversity is a natural part of the unpredictability and ups and downs of life.
In other words; tragedy and adversity are part of the landscape of life. In this story, as well as in others in the book, tulips represent the idea that the power to heal oneself comes from within the individual facing adversity and not from the use of another person’s tragedy to boost one’s ego. When speaking about the lifecycle of tulips Suzanne, Olive’s daughter in law, questions the fact that tulips do not bloom perennially to which Olive responds, “the bloom of a tulip is already in its bulb. Right there. One shot. That’s it. (142) The bloom represents hope and happiness while the bulb is the person within whom it resides. When Christopher, Olive’s son moves away with his wife, she and her husband, Henry, become extremely upset. To cope with the pain of losing their son across the company Olive and Henry fill their time with activities that fill them with a certain amount of comfort. Henry begins woodworking while Olive, “ordered one hundred tulip bulbs. ” (143) This signifies the fact that through individual and collective hobbies they are able to find some hope of happiness in their lives.
However, after a divorce from the wife that he had moved away for, Christopher refuses to move home. Henry, Olive’s husband, takes the news hard to which Olive replies, “at least your not Rodger Larkin for God’s sake,” an attempt at schadenfrude that gives neither of them any comfort. Olive is put into even more agony when Henry suffers a stroke and becomes basically unresponsive. Although Olive claims that those who offer sympathy are stupid because, “we all see this stuff coming,” it is obvious that she has not predicted these events in her life.
She does not know how to deal with the unexpected responsibilities placed on her after Henry’s stroke like paying bills. Because Olive cannot find comfort in the kind words and support of others, a letter received from Louise Larkin offers her the possibility of obtaining comfort in the misfortune of a women who experienced misfortune herself. In this part of the can see how the tulips represent Olive’s feelings of hope. Immediately after Henry’s stroke Strout mentions that, “the tulips bloomed in ridiculous splendor. (146) Olive is hopeful that she will receive some sort of response from Henry, and when she does not, Christopher’s visit offers her hope for a reconnection with the son who has become a stranger to her. This reaching out for hope is signified in the fact that the tulips Olive had planted tulips at different depths and they had a, “lovely unevenness to them. ” (146) While a responsive Henry would have given Olive the most hope, there is still the deeper planted hope that Christopher will comfort her. However, Christopher is short and does not offer any support or interest in helping Olive.
She repeatedly asks to visit him and is repeatedly disappointed with his rejections. After revealing this, Strout shows how the hope in Olive has faded by writing, “the tulips died, the trees turned red, the leaves fell off. ” (149) After receiving a letter from Louise, Olive, desperate for some sort of comfort, decides to visit her. Olive noticed as she drove by her home that it offered, “the faintest strip of light” from underneath the blinds; she saw a faint possibility of comfort in the misfortune of Louise. 150) However, Olive learns quickly after arriving at the Larkin’s home that she will receive no comfort from her trip. Early on in the visit it is mentioned that, “For Olive there was more than an inner silent groan of disappointment. There was an almost desperate urge to leave. ” (154)
Expecting to find a broken and unkempt woman, Olive notices that Louise looks beautiful after being stripped of her artificial attempts at beauty. She also finds that Louise is not moping or crying but is often, “laughing softly. While Louise has not been able to heal herself, she is brutally honest to Olive about her situation and is aware of why she had come. Much as she had been stripped of her artificial attempts at beauty, Louise has also been striped of her artificial sense of conversation. Louise says, “You came here for a nice dose of schadenfrude and it didn’t work. ” (156) While it almost seems as though Louise is doing alright, the reader can sense that there is something very wrong and this is visible when she blames the girl, whom her son had stabbed twenty-nine times, for what happened.
Thus the theme of the story makes itself present again; happiness after loss is based upon a person’s ability to get over the pain within themselves, without placing blame or reveling in someone else’s loss. However, that is not to say that one should not take comfort and support from others. Olive, is driving when, “a light rain dropped onto the car, and onto the road before her,” signifying the pain that Olive is feeling at the moment, and the hopelessness she feels for the future. 158) It is through a small act of kindness by Mary Blackwell, a woman whom Olive has repeatedly spoke of disliking, that Olive finds some comfort. It is not necessarily in the act itself, but the fact that she understood it to be genuine when she says, “Oh that’s all right,” after Olive almost hit her with her car. Olive realizes that because she says someone is a horrible person it does not make it true. In the same way she gives permission to die and it does not happen right away. It is from this Olive feels the unpredictability in, “this strange and incomprehensible world. (162) A memory of being at Christopher’s soccer games provides her with the revelation that there was a purity of happiness in those days for her. For her. Not for Mary Blackwell or Louise Larkin, it was her own memory of happiness. She also realizes that Louise had loved her son as well and she cannot expect to find her own happiness in what is now Louise’s misery. The tulip of her happiness is within her and in the end she can either plant it herself or let the ground freeze; at which point it is too late.
Olive Kitteridge Novel Review. (2020, Jun 02). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/olive-kitteridge-novel-review-essay
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