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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
On the next Saturday afternoon, Quoyle asks Agnis about her about her business. She explains that she opened her first shop in 1979 just after her “significant other,” the one after whom she named her dog, died. She doesn’t tell Quoyle that that person’s full name was Irene Warren. Agnis and Irene lived in a houseboat on Long Island. One summer, Agnis fixed up an old chair they had and found she enjoyed it. Then Irene discovered an Advanced Upholstery Techniques class in North Carolina and convinced Agnis to go. There, Agnis discovered the lucrative niche of yacht upholstery. She returned to New York anxious to set up a shop, only to find out that Irene had been diagnosed with incurable cancer. Within three months, Irene had died.
Agnis never reveals to Quoyle or anyone else (other than readers) that her lover was a woman—it seems that more modern attitudes toward sexual orientation have yet to make it Newfoundland. In a way, Agnis fell into upholstery just like Quoyle fell into journalism. But in contrast to her nephew, Agnis always took an active role in shaping her own path. She thus provides a role model for Quoyle to emulate—both in the way she built a successful career for herself, and in the way that she clearly still grieve the loss of her lover but doesn’t let that loss control her life.
Themes
Bunny crawls out from under the table and stares out the window into the underbrush as if she’s seen something alarming.
Although the book doesn’t say what Bunny saw, it strongly implies it’s the white dog, which again makes an appearance in the context of a character grappling with death and loss.
Themes
On the following Tuesday, Quoyle tries—and fails—to finish his article on the Tough Baby. He decides to drive over to Agnis’s shop, taking her up on an offer to stop by (and meet her employee Dawn) for lunch. He hopes he might encounter Wavey on the road—he knows she sometimes walks to the school at lunchtime. And indeed, she’s walking along with a canvas bag full of library books. After he drops her off, he thinks about how far she must walk each day. Petal never walked if she could avoid it.
The Melvilles’ malice toward each other continues to make Quoyle uncomfortable long after he steps off the boat, suggesting that it landed a bit too close to home. His subconscious comparison of Wavey and Petal also suggests that his own experience of unhappy marriage is on his mind.
Themes
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