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Chapter 11: A Breastpin of Human Hair
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Shipping News, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love and Family
Redemption, Courage, and Happiness
Life and Death
Resilience and Survival
Modernity
Summary
Analysis
Eventually—and with difficulty—Quoyle gets the $50 boat in the water, mounts a motor in it, and starts practicing by driving it back and forth in the bay near the point. Surprisingly, he enjoys the sensation of flying over the water with the throttle fully open. But whenever he slows down, a stern wave sloshes over the back of the boat and floods the well around his feet. Later, Nutbeem explains that this happens because the transom (the back of the boat) is too low. Dennis concurs. He can try to add wood to make it higher, but Quoyle would be better off just buying a proper boat from Alvin Yark.
It's yet another sign that Quoyle has found the right place to be—the right life to live—that he takes so naturally to the water despite his intense fear of it. Indeed, some of his joy in this moment seems to come directly from the sensation of having overcome something. But he’s stymied by the stern wave, which pointedly reminds him that life comes at a person fast. He can neither anticipate nor prepare for everything that life throws at him. Instead, he must develop the resilience to handle what comes.
Themes
Bunny runs from the dock to the house with her finger and thumb pinched together. She tells Agnis that the biggest thing in the whole world is the sky and the smallest thing is what she’s got in her hand—a single grain of sand. Sunshine, anxious to see it too, accidentally blows it away, and Bunny pulls back a fist to strike her sister. Agnis grabs Bunny’s hand and points out that there’s enough sand in the world for everybody.
It’s clear that Newfoundland is good for Bunny, too, because it awakens a sense of wonder within her. She and Sunshine fight and squabble because that’s what kids do. There is no expectation that a good family is a perfect family. Instead, it’s important to share and to loving and kind, as Agnis encourages Bunny to be here.
Themes
