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Armistice (III), 11 Nov 1918
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Life After Life, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Life, Reincarnation, and Alternate Possibilities
Fate vs. Choice
Family and Love
War and Death
Gender Roles and Expectations
Summary
Analysis
Bridget and Mrs. Glover discuss Ursula’s birth and wonder whether Sylvie will stop at three children. After giving Dr. Fellowes breakfast, Mrs. Glover prepares Sylvie’s breakfast. The doctor, unable to start his car, had then gotten a ride from George Glover on one of his horses so that he could attend to a farmer that had been trampled by a bull—but was still alive. Mrs. Glover asks Bridget to find a flower for Sylvie’s breakfast tray. Bridget is confused by this request, looking out at the fresh coat of snow.
As Atkinson continues to expand on the scene, she starts to weave in a major idea of the novel: life’s events often don’t make sense at the time, and that it is only in hindsight that they make sense. This makes events seem random, chaotic, and sometimes nonsensical as they happen (like Sylvie’s vision of George in the previous Snow chapter), but in actuality have a certain degree of order and fate to them.
Themes
