Mortality and Meaning Theme Analysis

Mortality takes on a unique quality in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, as the peculiar children in the titular home are trapped in a “time loop,” meaning they experience the same day over and over again and never age. While at first Jacob sees how the place is a kind of paradise, with the children perpetually playing and relaxing, Jacob gradually realizes how maddening this kind of life would be. His grandfather Abe understood this, which is why he chose to leave the time loop and live out a full life, having a family and ultimately dying. Additionally, the antagonists of the novel—the evil hollowgast and wights—search for a way to stop their aging even outside of time loops, but as a result they became soulless, rotting creatures who feed on peculiars. In highlighting the boredom and degradation in immortality, the book suggests that only by living out one’s full life—even knowing it will end—can a person truly find meaning and value in it.

Initially, Jacob recognizes the advantages of never aging, showing how immortality can seem attractive. The children inhabit one perfect day over and over again, playing, putting on magic shows, and enjoying the sun, the beach, and each other. Jacob sees the beauty in this “strange little heaven,” recognizing how happy it makes him, particularly because he and the others have no responsibilities. This establishes how the time loops can be incredibly appealing to inhabit. Moreover, remaining in the time loop comes with a degree of protection for all of the children, because they are invisible in time: only peculiars and wights can pass through the entrance to the time loops, and the entrance is hard to find. In this way, immortality also shields them from conflict with the “common folk” and hides them from the evil beings trying to kill them, giving them another reason why living in the time loop is enticing. They not only get to enjoy a perpetual, idyllic childhood, but they’re also sheltered from life’s difficulties and dangers.

Despite the time loop’s advantages, the book challenges the idea that such a life is truly perfect by showing how boring and restrictive it would be to live the same day over and over and never age. When Jacob considers whether to remain with the children, he worries about the fact that as soon as the children leave the time loop for too long, they will age extremely rapidly, until they become the age that they’re supposed to be (most would be between 80 and 100). He thinks, “Yes, it was beautiful and life was good, but if every day were exactly alike and if the kids really couldn't leave […] then this place wasn't just a heaven but a kind of prison, too.” In this way, Jacob recognizes how confining it would feel to live in the time loop, even though outwardly the time loop might give the appearance of freedom. The children keenly feel the ramifications of this confinement, too. Prior to Jacob’s arrival, one of the children, Victor, said he was “going mad” on the island and decided to leave, until a hollowgast found and killed him. Abe, too, did not want to stay, and instead chose to live in Florida, even though it meant that he eventually did die. In this way, the book suggests that even faced with the very real threat of death, peculiars struggle to live at Miss Peregrine’s because of the oppressive boredom and limitation of not getting to live a full life. Later, when wights threaten to invade the island, Miss Peregrine insists that the children cannot even leave the house, and Jacob notes that the kids begin to “go a little nuts,” with some becoming very mischievous and others moping constantly. Frustrated, Emma and several other children decide to set out to confront the wights and hollows; Emma says that “living like this might just be worse than dying.” In this way, the book emphasizes that a life of confinement isn’t really a meaningful life at all, even if it means avoiding death.

The hollowgast and wights represent another commentary on the problems with immortality, as their quest to never die leads them to a horrific version of life. The hollowgast were once peculiar, but they conducted an experiment with time loops in order to gain true immortality. Their experiment failed: while they did succeed in getting to live for thousands of years, it caused them to transform into hollowgast—invisible, rotting, tentacled shadow creatures whose only desire is to feast on the flesh of other peculiars. Miss Peregrine explains that the hollowgast’s desire to transform themselves into gods went against the very laws of nature and shouldn’t have been attempted. In this way, the book suggests that attempting to avoid death completely is morally wrong. When the hollows do eat enough peculiars, they become wights, who appear human. But wights also have no memories and find no real meaning in life other than to act as scouts to procure peculiars for other hollows. In describing the hollows and wights as “devils” who are “damned” to a soulless life, the book highlights how immortality comes with a life devoid of meaning.

In its conclusion, the book reinforces the idea that life can have meaning only when it accepts death. With Miss Peregrine trapped in her bird form, the time loop cannot reset, and the children are forced to leave the island. But even though they have lost some of their protection, they have also gained a degree of freedom and meaning. Jacob describes how “Some of them claimed they could feel the difference; the air in their lungs was fuller, the race of blood through their veins faster. They felt more vital, more real.” Only through aging and knowing that they won’t live indefinitely—that real change, adventure, and even danger are unavoidable—does life become “more real” and more meaningful to the children.