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The River
Random forces of good and bad luck seem to affect the lives of the Lamb family more than anything else, and the spinning knife symbolizes this randomness most clearly. While Lester and his children enjoy spinning a knife on their kitchen table and asking it questions as an amusing game, it also serves as a constant reminder of their apparent lack of control over their own lives and destinies. It’s fitting that Fish is the character who plays with the knife most often, as his mental state was changed drastically and permanently by an accident that seemed to happen for no reason at all. Both Lester and Oriel can’t help but wonder if the entire world is at the mercy of luck and fate as they watch the knife spin and stop where it may. This is a stark contrast to their previous, more religious worldview, which reassured them that everything happens for a reason. But ever since Fish nearly drowned and lost his former personality forever, the Lambs have a much harder time believing that their lives are governed by anything other than the random whims of fate. Throughout the novel, the Lamb family members spin the knife again and again, trying to work through the family’s ongoing uncertainties about what chance has in store for them. Even as the Lambs jokingly tell themselves that “the knife never lies,” they’re tempted to seriously believe that acts of God are either completely random or too mysterious to be fully understood.
The Spinning Knife Quotes in Cloudstreet
The Cloudstreet quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Spinning Knife. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 3
Quotes
She wondered if it wasn’t really the way things were, everything just happening by chance in this sorry world. That knife spinning. She thought about her poor dead brother and the ashes and bones of her mother and sister, of Fish, the farm and every other bad turn that led to this night in a strange street and a makeshift kitchen.
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Chapter 5
Quotes
The blade turns and turns, slow, slower and Lester thinks—is this all there is to it? Just chance, luck, the spin of the knife? Isn’t there a pattern at all; a plan?
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The Spinning Knife Symbol Timeline in Cloudstreet
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Spinning Knife appears in Cloudstreet. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3
Just before dinner one night, the Lambs spin a knife on the table and ask it who’s doing the washing tonight, who’s the smartest, who’ll...
(full context)
...baby of the family, and Fish often has childlike screaming episodes. Fish loves spinning the knife and the sound of the river, and Rose still finds him beautiful.
(full context)
...strangers in the hallway and takes a handful of humbugs from Quick. Fish spins the knife on the front porch and exclaims with glee when it stops spinning to point at...
(full context)
Chapter 5
...he can hear it talking. Lester takes him downstairs to the kitchen to spin the knife, asking it who will be the one to see Quick come home first. The knife...
(full context)
Chapter 6
...wheat field. He throws a bone to Bill, his dog, and teases him, spinning a knife on the back of a skillet to decide who’s doing the dishes after breakfast. Quick’s...
(full context)
Chapter 10
Quick returns home to find Rose spinning a butterknife on her dresser. He tells her to ask the knife if it’ll give him a...
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