The Great Alone

by

Kristin Hannah

Themes and Colors
Trauma and Violence Theme Icon
Paranoia and the Vietnam War Theme Icon
Isolation Theme Icon
Family and Community Theme Icon
Death and Grief Theme Icon
Coming of Age Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Great Alone, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Trauma and Violence Theme Icon

Domestic violence is ever-present in the brutal world of The Great Alone. Ernt, a disgruntled Vietnam veteran and former prisoner of war, regularly takes his anger out on his wife Cora. Although Cora constantly makes excuses for her husband’s behavior, she eventually reaches her breaking point when he turns his violent wrath on their daughter, Leni. As Ernt beats Leni with a belt, Cora shoots him twice in the back and then disposes of his body out in the wilderness. Cora’s actions throughout the novel are a response to the ongoing, intensifying violence she’s endured at the hands of her husband. She often refuses to stand up for herself, assuming that to do so will trigger further abuse; when she finally does act for Leni’s sake, she resorts to deadly violence.

Similarly, Ernt’s actions over the course of the novel are responses to the horrors of the Vietnam War. Time and time again, he believes that people are out to get him, even in remote Alaska. Generally, his abusive behavior toward his family is a result of fear and shame, two emotions that have heightened in Ernt since returning from the war. Although The Great Alone certainly empathizes with Cora as a victim more than Ernt as an abuser, it also suggests that their toxic behavior comes from a similar place of pent-up suffering. Thus they both react to traumatic situations the only way they know how: Cora through passivity (and eventually killing) and Ernt through violence.

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Trauma and Violence Quotes in The Great Alone

Below you will find the important quotes in The Great Alone related to the theme of Trauma and Violence.
Chapter 1 Quotes

That spring, rain fell in great sweeping gusts that rattled the rooftops. Water found its way into the smallest cracks and undermined the sturdiest foundations. Chunks of land that had been steady for generations fell like slag heaps on the roads below, taking houses and cars and swimming pools down with them. Trees fell over, crashed into power lines; electricity was lost. Rivers flooded their banks, washed across yards, ruined homes. People who loved each other snapped and fights erupted as the water rose and the rain continued.

Related Characters: Leni Allbright, Coraline (Cora) Allbright, Ernt Allbright
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

“Two kinds of folks come up to Alaska, Cora. People running to something and people running away from something. The second kind—you want to keep your eye out for them. And it isn’t just the people you need to watch out for, either. Alaska herself can be Sleeping Beauty one minute and a bitch with a sawed-off shotgun the next. There’s a saying: Up here you can make one mistake. The second one will kill you.”

Related Characters: Marge Birdsall (speaker), Coraline (Cora) Allbright
Page Number: 35
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

“Down there,” Mad Earl went on, “Outside, people are standing in line for gas while OPEC laughs all the way to the bank. And you think the good ole USSR forgot about us after Cuba? Think again. We got Negroes calling themselves Black Panthers and raisin’ their fists at us, and illegal immigrants stealing our jobs. So what do people do? They protest. They sit down. They throw bombs at empty post office buildings. They carry signs and march down streets. Well. Not me. I got a plan.”

Related Characters: Earl Harlan (speaker)
Page Number: 61
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

He picked out the small, plump heart and held it up to Leni. Blood leaked between his fingers. “You’re the hunter. Eat the heart.”

“Ernt, please,” Mama said, “we’re not savages.”

“That’s exactly what we are,” he said in a voice as cold as the wind at their back. “Eat it.”

Related Characters: Coraline (Cora) Allbright (speaker), Ernt Allbright (speaker), Leni Allbright
Page Number: 132
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

Leni saw his love for her, shining through his regret. It eroded her anger, made her question everything again. He didn’t want to hurt Mama, didn’t mean to. He was sick …

Related Characters: Leni Allbright, Coraline (Cora) Allbright, Ernt Allbright
Page Number: 159
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

“I love you,” Mama said, and she was crying now, too, and suddenly Leni understood the reality of her world, the truth that Alaska, in all its beautiful harshness, had revealed. They were trapped, by environment and finances, but mostly by the sick, twisted love that bound her parents together.

Related Characters: Coraline (Cora) Allbright (speaker), Leni Allbright, Ernt Allbright
Page Number: 196
Explanation and Analysis:

Leni sighed. How was Mama’s unshakable belief in Dad any different than his fear of Armageddon? Did adults just look at the world and see what they wanted to see, think what they wanted to think? Did evidence and experience mean nothing?

Related Characters: Leni Allbright, Coraline (Cora) Allbright, Ernt Allbright
Page Number: 198
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

Every window was broken, the door had been hacked to bits, left as sharp shards of wood hanging from brass hinges, and white spray-painted graffiti covered the burnt walls. THIS IS A WARNING. STAY AWAY. ARROGANT PRICK. NO PROGRESS.

Related Characters: Ernt Allbright, Tom Walker
Page Number: 233
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

If you knew me, you wouldn’t be surprised at all that I start my college essay off with a quote from Tolkien. Books are the mile markers of my life. Some people have family photos or home movies to record their past. I’ve got books. Characters. For as long as I can remember, books have been my safe place. I read about places I can barely imagine and lose myself in journeys to foreign lands to save girls who didn’t know they were really princesses.

Related Characters: Leni Allbright (speaker)
Page Number: 298
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 19 Quotes

“If he loved you guys, he wouldn’t hurt you.”

He made it sound so simple, as if it were a mathematical equation. But the connection between pain and love wasn’t linear. It was a web.

Related Characters: Matthew Walker (speaker), Leni Allbright, Ernt Allbright
Page Number: 336
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

Fear, Leni learned, was not the small, dark closet she’d always imagined: walls pressed in close, a ceiling you bumped your head on, a floor cold to the touch.

No.

Fear was a mansion, one room after another, connected by endless hallways.

Related Characters: Leni Allbright
Related Symbols: Ernt’s Barricade
Page Number: 35
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 21 Quotes

Mostly he was afraid for Leni, because no matter how this all worked out, no matter if she did everything perfectly and got away and saved her mom, Leni’s heart would always have a broken place. It didn’t matter how you lost a parent or how great or shitty that parent was, a kid grieved forever. Matthew grieved for the mother he’d had. He figured Leni would grieve for the dad she wanted.

Related Characters: Leni Allbright, Ernt Allbright, Matthew Walker
Page Number: 359
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 22 Quotes

Leni felt something then, a seismic shift in her thinking; like spring breakup, a changing of the landscape, a breaking away that was violent, immediate. She wasn’t afraid of this man anymore. Or if she was, the fear was submerged too deeply to register. All she felt was hatred.

Related Characters: Leni Allbright, Coraline (Cora) Allbright, Matthew Walker
Page Number: 385
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 23 Quotes

In the silence, Leni wondered if one person could ever really save another, or if it was the kind of thing you had to do for yourself.

Related Characters: Leni Allbright, Coraline (Cora) Allbright, Matthew Walker
Page Number: 400
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

Matthew’s eyes opened. One stared straight ahead. The other rolled wildly in the socket. That one staring green eye was the only part of him she recognized. He struggled, made a terrible moaning sound of pain.

He opened his mouth, screamed, “Bwaaaa…” He thrashed, bucked up like he was trying to break free. The halo made a clanging sound when it hit the bedrail. Blood started to form at the bolts in his temple. An alarm went off. “Hermmmm…”

Related Characters: Leni Allbright, Matthew Walker
Page Number: 425
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26 Quotes

I guess my mama was right about love. As screwed up as she is, she understands the durability and lunacy of it. You can’t make yourself fall in love, I suppose, and you can’t make yourself fall out of it.

Related Characters: Leni Allbright (speaker), Coraline (Cora) Allbright, Matthew Walker
Page Number: 450
Explanation and Analysis: