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Chapter 32: The Hairy Devil
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
Quoyle wakes up in the Sea Gull Inn the following morning with a massive hangover. When he revives enough to go downstairs, the staff ask how Agnis is doing in St. John’s. They also tell him that the revelers sunk Nutbeem’s boat the night before, a story Quoyle doesn’t believe. When he leaves the inn, he can’t find his car in the street. It’s still at Nutbeem’s, trashed with beer cans and desiccated cold cuts and with a new dent, but none the worse for wear. There’s no sign of Nutbeem, his bike, or the Borogrove at the dock, so Quoyle wonders if he left ahead of schedule.
Quoyle defaults to his baseline suspicion that forces are at work beyond his control and outside his knowledge—readers know that the story the staff tell him is true. But his recent experience of being a part of a community and a group of friends is so strange that he still struggles to comprehend it.
Themes
Driving out to the Point to retrieve a few things, Quoyle sees a thread of smoke rising from somewhere in Capsize Cove—doubtless belonging to the mysterious cousin, Nolan. He ignores it, but when he enters the house—the big green house that feels so ominous and so wrong tied to the rock—he finds knotted strings on the threshold of every room. Fed up, he decides to confront the cousin.
For reasons still unclear to readers, Agnis refused to confront Nolan. Quoyle didn’t press the issue when she was still in town but now that she’s gone, he decides to take matters into his own hands. As with his earlier willingness to stand up to Tert Card, this shows character growth on his part—he’s not just taking things lying down anymore.
Themes
Nolan Quoyle lives with an ancient white dog in a filthy hovel in Capsize Cove, and it’s immediately clear that he lost his sanity long ago. But he’s certainly a relative, as evidenced by his shelf-like chin. Quoyle angrily tosses the knotted strings at Nolan, who in turn throws them onto the fire, which he says makes their magical effects unchangeable. Unwilling to argue or engage, Quoyle leaves.
For a while, Nolan has haunted Quoyle and his family, threatening their growing stability and happiness like a dark and ominous force. In fact, that’s how Quoyle tended to experience people prior to coming to Newfoundland—his parents neglected him, his brother mocked him, and his wife cheated on him. The truth about Nolan, however, is somewhat tragic. Nolan is just an addled old man, the white dog just a mangy mutt.
Themes
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Quoyle drives from Capsize to Nunny Bag Cove to help Alvin Yark with his boat. Alvin explains bits of his craft, like the way the individual trees he selects affect the finished vessel. And he tells Quoyle about his Uncle Les, from whom he learned his shipbuilding trade, and the man’s coffin, which he built in the shape of a boat.
Alvin isn’t just building Quoyle a boat—he’s teaching valuable lessons. Likewise, Dennis didn’t just fix up the house and Jack didn’t just give Quoyle a job. Every relationship Quoyle has formed in Newfoundland has offered him the opportunity for growth.
Themes
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When Quoyle finally makes it back to Nutbeem’s trailer, Nutbeem, Dennis, and Billy Pretty are outside drinking. They tried to pull the Borogrove out of the bay but only succeeded in breaking her in two. Nutbeem is still planning on leaving for Brazil, just by airplane instead of sailboat. He’s looking forward to the delicious cuisine. He describes his favorite dish, something Quoyle has eaten because Partridge once made it. Nutbeem also has bad news: the family who owns the trailer refuses to rent it to newspaper men ever again. That’s okay, though, because Quoyle no longer wants to live there. He’s planning to find out if the Burkes will rent him their house since they’re struggling to find a buyer.
Nutbeem offers Quoyle a lesson, too, when he faces his losses with stoic equanimity. He poured his heart and soul into the Borogrove and is undoubtedly sad when he loses her, but he doesn’t let that loss define or deter him. He simply finds another way to get where he wants to go. Quoyle is slowly starting to do the same. And he decides to pursue the Burke house because he’s done living in squalid and temporary quarters like the trailer. He’s ready to put down roots.
Themes
