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Chapter 26: Deadman
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
Two days later, Billy Pretty enters the newsroom with the latest on the dead body, which the authorities believe is Bayonet Melville. While Billy types up the story at his desk, Nutbeem complains that he never gets to cover anything exciting, just the sordid sexual assaults. Gruffly, Tert points out that these salacious stories are what sell the paper. Quoyle wonders what happens to offenders, but Nutbeem says he won’t be around long enough to figure it out. The Borogrove is almost fixed, and he plans to sail before the ice sets in.
The Melvilles’ marriage mirrors and reflects Quoyle’s marriage to Petal in that both were abjectly miserable. While love is an important and powerful force for good in the book, Bayonet’s tragic fate suggests that hate—like what Silver had for Bayonet or Petal had for Quoyle—is just as strong.
Themes
Tert asks Quoyle for his accident writeup. This week, it’s about the sinking of a fishing boat that heeled over and sank under the weight of some brand-new, completely empty traps. The loss concluded a disastrous fishing season in which the boat’s owner spent over $8,000 on licenses, equipment, and repairs only to catch a grand total of nine cod. The story strikes Tert as funny, but Quoyle hates the fact that poor fisherman’s life work “ended like a stupid joke.”
The story about the fishing boat highlights the precarious social and economic situation for Newfoundland fishermen and continues the book’s exploration of the ways that changing times have both benefitted and harmed communities. Tert is portrayed consistently as a miserable and malicious man. He rejoices in the tragedy because it brings the future he wants to see—one controlled by oil companies—one step closer to reality. But the book makes the human and social costs of that so-called progress very clear.
Themes
Recently, Quoyle received a letter from Partridge, describing his and Mercalia’s grand life in California. They’ve gotten into wine and built a cellar; they have a smoker, a $2,000 gas grill, and a clay oven in their backyard for cooking, and they even have a whole-house sound system. They would love for Quoyle to fly out for a visit anytime. Quoyle rereads this letter, then he invites Nutbeem to lunch at Skipper Will’s.
In leaving Mockingburg, Quoyle and Partridge took very different paths. The book portrays Partridge’s journey as a typical example of the American Dream—it’s defined in economic terms, by making money and buying nice things. At this point, it seems like Partridge is happy with his life. In contrast, Quoyle’s happiness is smaller and less flashy, involving simple pleasures and friends.
Themes
Hunched over a table in the back, Nutbeem asks Quoyle if he’s noticed Jack’s tendency to assign his reporters beats that involve their own fear and trauma. Quoyle has to cover the car accidents, even after Petal’s death. Nutbeem—who was abused for years as a schoolboy—is forced to cover the sexual assaults. Quoyle observes that it’s not unlike Jack’s insistence on fishing despite his fear of the ocean: constant exposure dulls the pain a little, because it makes one’s own experience feel less unique. But it still hurts.
It's a mark of how much more perspective Quoyle has developed on himself and on life that he’s able to take such a philosophical stance on Jack’s assignments. His tone, too, is accepting: he now seems to accept it as fact that exposure is an effective way to heal from trauma or face one’s fears, highlighting just how far he’s come since arriving in Newfoundland.
Themes
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At four o’clock, Quoyle goes to pick up Wavey. Each morning, he drops Sunshine at Beety’s, takes Bunny to school, then gives Wavey a ride into town. In the afternoons he takes Wavey home, then picks up the girls. Sometimes, he brings Bunny and Sunshine back to Wavey’s house—inside, it’s full of colorful furnishings, paintings, and the little wooden figures she and her father make a living selling to tourists—and they eat dinner together. People are noticing, but it’s still taking a long time for anything between Quoyle and Wavey to become official.
Without overt courting—the book hasn’t described a single encounter that could be considered a date—Wavey and Quoyle have fallen into an easy, domestic routine. This hints at another truth Quoyle is slowly learning: love need not always be violent or painful. In fact, this quiet kind of affection is stronger in many ways, not least because it happens in the context of a supportive community.
Themes
