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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Childhood vs. Adulthood
Memory, Perception, and Reality
Knowledge and Identity
Fear, Bravery, and Friendship
Summary
Analysis
The narrator sits on the bench by the pond and thinks of his kitten: he remembers that Ocean was with him for years. He doesn’t remember what happened to her, but then he realizes that “death happened to her.” The old woman sits down next to the narrator with a cup of tea and a sandwich. As he eats, the narrator studies the woman and asks if she’s Old Mrs. Hempstock. She is. The narrator asks if it’s true. Old Mrs. Hempstock says that whatever the narrator remembered, it’s probably true—but no two people remember things the same way. The narrator asks why he came here. Old Mrs. Hempstock explains that he wanted to get away from everyone at the funeral, so he came here, as always.
As an adult, the narrator now has a cynical way of thinking about how beings grow and change. Even if he doesn’t know exactly what happens to a person or an animal, he believes that everything must eventually die. Given that he’s talking to the one and only Old Mrs. Hempstock right now, this clearly isn’t true—she doesn’t die, and if readers are to believe her, other beings from the Hempstocks’ world don’t die either. The narrator’s insistence that everything does die reflects a new, more adult understanding of how the world works.
Themes
This confuses the narrator; he hasn’t been here since Lettie went to Australia, which he understands never happened. Old Mrs. Hempstock says that the narrator was here in his early twenties, when he had two young kids and was afraid. He came back in his thirties and told her about his art. The narrator doesn’t remember this, and he asks again why he came. Ginnie appears and says that Lettie wanted him to. The narrator is shocked that Ginnie looks younger than he is. She sits down on the narrator’s other side and says that Lettie wants to know if her sacrifice was worth it—she wants to know what’s next. Ginnie says that Lettie couldn’t bear it when the hunger birds tore out the narrator’s heart, but the narrator doesn’t remember this. Old Mrs. Hempstock sniffs that no one remembers things the same.
As an adult, the narrator doesn’t have the vocabulary or the understanding to make sense of his connection to the Hempstock farm. However, Old Mrs. Hempstock and Ginnie seem to imply that this doesn’t have to make sense to the narrator—the fact remains that he continues to come back, and will continue to come back, because of his close relationship with Lettie. Her sacrifice, in a sense, binds the two together, even if they haven’t seen each other for decades. Lettie seems to want to know if the narrator is still able to be brave in his adult life without her by his side.
Themes
The narrator asks if he can speak to Lettie, but Ginnie says that she’s sleeping and healing. The narrator realizes that Lettie has been looking at him the entire time that he’s been here remembering her. He asks if he passed her inspection, but Ginnie says that being a person isn’t pass or fail. She observes that the narrator is doing better now than he was last time. The narrator looks at the full moon and asks what happens now. Old Mrs. Hempstock says that, as always, the narrator will go home. In the narrator’s mind, Lettie is still a head taller, but he wonders who he’d see if she were here now. He thinks of the story of men who fished for the moon and decided its reflection in the water was easier to catch. The narrator suggests that the reflection always is easier.
When the narrator wonders how Lettie would look to him now, it shows that he understands he no longer sees the world as a child. He recognizes that his perspective has changed dramatically and has changed how he remembers his friendship with Lettie. His assertion that it’s always easier to catch “the reflection” suggests that truly understanding something, whatever that may be, might not be possible. It’s easier to come up with some sort of a facsimile, or to assume that one understands, even if one doesn’t.
Themes
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Then, the narrator steps to the edge of the pond and thanks Lettie for saving his life. Old Mrs. Hempstock sniffs that Lettie shouldn’t have taken the narrator when she went out to begin with, but now she’ll know for next time. Ginnie gently says that it’s time for the narrator to rejoin his family. A black cat with a white ear comes to say hello. The narrator says she looks just like Ocean, but he doesn’t remember what happened to her. Ginnie says that he brought Ocean back to them, touches the narrator’s cheek, and walks away. The narrator and the old woman talk about the moon, and the narrator says that for a moment, he thought there were two women. But the old woman says that it’s always just her.
Ginnie confirms that this cat is indeed Ocean—like the Hempstocks, this cat cannot die. In a sense, this makes the case that a person’s friendships, whether they’re with animals or other humans, never really die. They can inspire a person long after they seem to end. When Old Mrs. Hempstock reverts to the old woman and confirms that it’s only ever her, it implies that Ginnie, Lettie, and Old Mrs. Hempstock as the narrator knew them might not even be three separate people—they may be one iteration of the same being, though the narrator is seldom able to see them like this.
Themes
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The narrator thanks the old woman for letting him sit and asks her to say hi to Lettie next time she writes from Australia. The narrator heads back up the lane, and in his rearview mirror, he sees two moons: one is full, and one is a sliver. He turns to look back and sees a single sliver. The narrator wonders for a moment what caused the illusion, but then he decides it was just a ghost that momentarily seemed real.
As the narrator leaves, he once again forgets everything that happened. Seeing the two moons is the last indicator he gets that the Hempstock farm is truly magical—but in his mortal, adult world, this sort of thing is just an illusion. As his memories leave him, he once again loses the ability to make sense of the strange and the surreal.
Themes
