A God in Ruins

Before Teddy leaves for the war, Ursula gives him a small, silver hare charm that used to hang above his stroller when he was a baby. She says that it always brought him good luck and kept him safe and will do the same while he is fighting in the war. Teddy later gives the hare to Sunny, hoping it will do the same for him. Sunny, even as a Buddhist who places no value on possessions, keeps the hare throughout the novel, even while teaching as a yogi in Bali. Other than Nancy, it is Ursula who is shown taking the most concern for Teddy’s comfort, peace of mind, and safety. The hare is a symbol of their relationship and the support that family members can be for one another. 

Lucky is a dog that stows away on one of Teddy’s planes during a bombing raid. Teddy adopts the dog, lets it stay with him at the barracks, and walks it around various cities before taking it home to England at the end of the war. No one knows how Lucky got on the bomber plane. Teddy is rarely emotional with other people and professes discomfort when people openly share their feelings. However, whenever Teddy is shown weeping (except for learning that Vic wanted to name his son after him) after his most traumatic combat experiences, it is Lucky he cries to. He is comfortable being vulnerable around the dog and showing a side of himself that no one else sees. Lucky is a motif that proves that Teddy is more emotional than his outward, stoic demeanor lets on. Besides Teddy’s nightmares, Lucky is the most significant symbol of the toll that the war has taken on Teddy. 

Teddy flies three combat tours and survives—unless the reader is to take the alternate ending in which Teddy dies, as the actual outcome. He becomes a symbol of heroism, and men eventually seek to join his crew hoping that his apparent invincibility and knack for beating the odds will keep them safe as well. Teddy is also a symbol of reliability for the other characters in the novel. He is authentic, he means what he says, he helps his family in whatever ways he can, and he is honest. Teddy never tries to pretend he is something that he is not, and although he is uncomfortable when he is called a war hero, he has no control over the way he is viewed by others in light of his service.