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Addie’s wooden ring symbolizes Addie’s deal with Luc and everything the deal has forced her to give up. Running through the woods to escape her wedding to Roger, Addie prays to the gods to help her. Luc answers her prayer, and she offers him the wooden ring in exchange for his help. Luc laughs at Addie, explaining that he doesn’t “deal in trinkets” and will accept no less than Addie’s soul as payment for helping her. Addie at first believes that Luc has destroyed the ring he rejected. Addie associates the ring with her father, who made it for her when she was born. In light of this, Addie’s initial loss of the ring foreshadows the love and human connection that Addie will give up in exchange for her freedom.
Nearly a century after Luc grants Addie her immortality, though, Luc returns the ring to Addie. Like Addie, the ring remains just as unmarked and unchanging as it was the day Addie made her deal with Luc. In this way, it represents the positive side of Addie’s curse: the way the curse has allowed her to avoid aging, death, and decay. But the ring’s supernatural immutability also torments Addie, reminding her of the supernatural power that Luc has over the ring—and over her, too. Once more, then, the ring reflects the devastating cost of Addie’s freedom. Indeed, upon returning the ring to Addie, Luc explains that if Addie wants to summon him—that is, if she’s finally ready to surrender her soul to him—she need only put on the ring, and he’ll be there. But Addie refuses to wear the ring, even when her situation becomes dire or when loneliness threatens to overwhelm her. There’s nothing that Addie wants less than Luc’s help—or to give Luc the satisfaction that she needs his help. And so, the ring that once represented the love and family that Addie gave up in exchange for her freedom now represents the new constraints that freedom has placed on her: being beholden to Luc. Centuries of immortality and being forgotten teach Addie that her freedom comes at a devastating cost—that total freedom means total loneliness, and that liberating herself from Villon’s oppressive social norms has only freed her to become the victim of an even more monstrous oppressor in Luc. Her wooden ring underscores this difficult lesson.
Addie’s Wooden Ring Quotes in The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
The The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue quotes below all refer to the symbol of Addie’s Wooden Ring . 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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Part 5, Chapter 3
Quotes
“I can show you,” he purrs, letting the light settle in his palm. “Say the word, and I will lay your own soul bare before you. Surrender, and I promise, the last thing you see will be the truth.”
There it is again.
One time salt, and the next honey, and each designed to cover poison. Addie looks at the ring, lets herself linger on it one last time, and then forces her gaze up past the light to meet the dark.
“You know,” she says, “I think I’d rather live and wonder.”
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Part 6, Chapter 1
Quotes
“Put it on, and I will come.” Luc leans back in his chair, the night breeze blowing through those raven curls. “There,” he says. “Now we are even.”
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Addie’s Wooden Ring Symbol Timeline in The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
The timeline below shows where the symbol Addie’s Wooden Ring appears in The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1, Chapter 2
...changes into a new outfit in the dressing room. As she removes her jacket, a ring made of ash-gray wood falls out her pocket and onto the floor. Addie leaves it...
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Part 1, Chapter 3
...and small wooden animal figurines he made. But Adeline’s favorite trinket is a smooth wooden ring, which she wears on a leather cord around her neck.
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Part 1, Chapter 7
...ground. She scrounges through her pocket for some change, trying not to touch the wooden ring. She wants to take it and throw it as far as she can, but she...
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Part 1, Chapter 8
...Later, Adeline’s mother braids her hair, weaving flowers into the braids. Adeline touches the wooden ring around her neck to calm herself. Adeline’s mother notices and tells Adeline she must remove...
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Before Adeline can change her mind, she takes off running, clutching the wooden ring as she bounds through the field. When Adeline reaches the forest, she kneels into the...
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Part 1, Chapter 9
Adeline falls to her knees and offers the wooden ring. The stranger laughs at Adeline. He explains that he only accepts “souls.” Then he asks...
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Part 1, Chapter 12
...never keep anything for long. Eventually, everything disappears. The only thing that doesn’t is the ring.
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...and steps outside. She puts her hand in the robe’s pocket and feels the wooden ring brush against her fingers. Addie resists the temptation to slip it on her finger. Instead,...
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Part 3, Chapter 7
...is different than all the others: finally, somebody remembers her. Then Henry holds out Addie’s ring to her—she must have dropped it last night, he says. Addie panics upon seeing the...
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Part 5, Chapter 3
...can be deceiving—and at this, the orb loses its light and turns into Addie’s wooden ring. If Addie really wants to know “the truth,” Luc says, he can show her—but she...
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Part 6, Chapter 1
...of what she once said about him wanting company. Luc offers Addie back her wooden ring, explaining that she need only put it on to summon him to her.
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Luc offers Addie back her wooden ring, explaining that she need only put it on to summon him to her. Addie realizes...
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Part 6, Chapter 2
...to the beach and have a great time. When they pack up later, Addie’s wooden ring falls into the sand. She thinks it’s a bad omen but tries to ignore it....
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Part 6, Chapter 3
...music that pulses through the space. It’s nearly midnight now, and she touches the wooden ring that hangs from a silver cord around her neck. She often reaches for the ring,...
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Part 6, Chapter 6
...hopeless” now: she’s livid. Addie runs out into the empty street. She finds the wooden ring in her pocket and twists it onto her finger. “Show yourself!” she demands. At first,...
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Part 6, Chapter 7
...and took anything she could possibly use as a weapon. They even took her wooden ring. Yet now, as she searches in her pocket, she feels the ring. She’s managed not...
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...together, and the prison dissolves behind them. Suddenly, Addie is back in Boston. The wooden ring is still on her finger. She considers what just happened: she asked Luc for help,...
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Part 6, Chapter 8
...Addie won’t give up, even if Henry has accepted his fate. Then she slips the ring onto her finger. There’s a knock at the door.
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Part 6, Chapter 14
...the ground that night. And now, once again, Addie has nothing. She pulls the wooden ring from her pocket and throws it into the flames.
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