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The Shilling
The amethyst pendant is a minor symbol to represent love’s power to connect people across time, place, and family, functioning in exactly the same way as the shilling. Like the shilling, the pendant surfaces throughout multiple narratives, forming a common, concrete thread between them and reflecting the love that each character shows to another when they gift it to them. After Francis steals the pendant from an old woman as a young teenager, he sells it to Kip, who eventually gifts it to Annabel. Annabel, in turn, gives the pendant to Charlotte as a memento of her love. In this sense, the pendant serves as an intergenerational connection among the Westaway family members, regardless of the different circumstances they experience in their respective time periods.
The Amethyst Pendant Quotes in Nine Days
The Nine Days quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Amethyst Pendant. 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:
).
Chapter 4: Charlotte
Quotes
I remember as a child spending ages every morning choosing which shoes I would wear and then worrying all day about the poor ones left behind in the cupboard, about how dejected they must feel having been passed over. Forsaken.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
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Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Nine Days LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Amethyst Pendant Symbol Timeline in Nine Days
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Amethyst Pendant appears in Nine Days. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2: Stanzi
...were younger—she was thinner, though not as thin as Charlotte, and Charlotte wore Annabel’s amethyst pendant. Annabel hovers, asking Stanzi if she wants something to eat, anything at all. Stanzi just...
(full context)
Chapter 4: Charlotte
...hers is healthy and able. She opens her underwear drawer and pulls out an amethyst pendant that her mother, Annabel, gave her for her 18th birthday. Stanzi opted to receive cash...
(full context)
...for support, though so far her sister is mostly cynical and less confident in the pendant’s predictive power. At Stanzi’s house, they drink wine from a matching set of wineglasses, not...
(full context)
...it in the bathroom to pee on the stick. Stanzi looks at the result. The pendant was right. Charlotte feels an overwhelming desire to talk to Annabel and decides that they...
(full context)
...what to do about her pregnancy. With no incense and no candles, Charlotte unhooks the pendant from around her neck, sits on the ground, pulls the band of her skirt down...
(full context)
Chapter 5: Francis
...pouch he put in his sock, and retrieving it, opens it to find an amethyst pendant.
(full context)
Chapter 6: Annabel
Francis tells Annabel that he has a gift for her, and shows her an amethyst pendant. It’s the most beautiful thing she’s ever seen. Francis tells her about how an old...
(full context)
...lavish dresses remind her of her own poverty. However, they’re both stunned at Annabel’s beautiful pendant, but when she tells them that Francis gave it to her, they seem concerned, especially...
(full context)
Jos breaks the silence, pointing out Annabel’s pendant from Francis. Kip is surprised by its obvious value, but when he asks where Francis...
(full context)
...poverty. Annabel is furious and decides she’ll walk home, but first starts to unclasp the pendant from her neck.
(full context)
Kip tells Annabel she shouldn’t give back the pendant, since it was a gift, but Francis wants it back to give to some other...
(full context)
Chapter 8: Alec
...talks about how it bothered him that he and Annabel only had the one amethyst pendant to give and two daughters—even though Stanzi took cash instead. He gives Stanzi the shilling,...
(full context)
