Libertie

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Symbols & Motifs

Water

Water is a cleansing motif in Libertie, symbolizing the way in which characters can wash themselves clean of the past and bring about a new future. This symbolism can be both optimistic and tragic. The death of Ben Daisy is an example of the latter. Unable to come to terms with his existence as a free man, Ben dives from the dock into the water, drowning himself in the mythical arms of a woman who lives beneath the waves. He gives himself over to the water rather than deal with the pain of existence, and he washes away the trauma of his past by killing himself.

At the same time, Libertie becomes obsessed with the mythology that emerges surrounding Ben’s death. She writes poems to the woman under the water, providing her with a creative outlet and a means of expressing herself that she never had before. The water and the woman who washed away Ben’s pain become the focus of Libertie’s creativity, allowing her to form a new identity that exists beneath the water and out of reach of the rest of society. These experiences constitute a more optimistic spin on the water-based escapism that Ben succumbed to.

Just like freedom itself, the freedom water represents can at times be overwhelming. While traveling to Haiti, Libertie crosses the ocean on a boat with Emmanuel. The journey is the furthest she has ever been from home, and the endless water that surrounds her makes her seasick. Libertie’s seasickness is a symbol of her anxiety. The water represents the distance from the life she knows and the broad, unknown future she is sailing toward. The water becomes a symbol of how much she fears the future.

In Haiti, Libertie again encounters the cleansing power of water. Emmanuel teaches her to swim in a pool on a mountainside. The lessons are Libertie’s introduction to a new life. She must learn to keep herself afloat or she will drown. Likewise, she must learn to succeed in her new environment by understanding the language and culture, or she will not survive. The pool cleanses Libertie of her fears and teaches her how to support herself in a strange new world. The water symbolizes the unknown, and her swimming is a symbolic act of staying afloat.

Music

In Libertie, music is intimately related to personal identity and self-expression. Libertie is a more poetic and musical person than her practical mother. Her use of language, songs, and poems indicates that her mother’s plan for Libertie to follow in her footsteps will never work. The careful, attentive style of medical care that Cathy performs is not suitable for a girl who expresses herself through poetry and song. Libertie’s greatest achievements are helping her mother to write complimentary songs or creating poems dedicated to the woman beneath the water. These creative endeavors provide a satisfaction for Libertie that medicine never does, symbolizing the difference in character between mother and daughter.

At college, Libertie meets the musicians Louisa and Experience, who introduce Libertie to music as a form of self-expression. To them, music is also a symbol of healing and power. They sing to seek refuge from the trauma of the past while also giving themselves power and agency. They sing in foreign languages, for example, because no language they know can adequately express the pain they feel. Libertie is seduced by this outpouring of emotion, but she misunderstands the situation; she mistakes Louisa and Experience’s romantic feelings for one another for unity, misinterpreting the emotional qualities of the songs they sing. Libertie’s realization that she must learn to sing her own song once again uses music to highlight the uniqueness of each person’s identity.

In Haiti, Libertie is surrounded by new songs and new sounds. While she loves this music, she understands that the songs are not her own. Her early experiences trying to sing other people’s songs have taught her not to become overly invested in the music she hears. The music of Haiti therefore illustrates Libertie’s growing self-awareness. Her emotional detachment from something she loves represents the way in which Libertie has become gradually more aware of her relationships with music, with other people, and with the world around her—things that she is connected to but ultimately distinct from. She leaves Haiti with her children in pursuit of her own song. Even though she does not know the exact details of her song, she knows that music and poetry offer her an escape.

Letters

Letters function as an important symbol in Libertie. Not only do they represent the desire to communicate, but they also provide a more permanent expression of emotion than speech. When Libertie leaves for college, for example, the letters from her mother are the only connection she has to the world she has left behind. These letters become a symbolic encyclopedia of that world. At the same time, the scraps of information her mother offers represent the nostalgia and homesickness she feels; Libertie only gets a hint of what is happening, and her overeager mind fills in the blanks. Her focus on the letters and her desire to know more about home underscores that she feels out of place in Ohio. She wants to connect to her old life, but the letters provide only a fleeting glimpse into everything she has lost.

The novel also uses letters to show the breakdown in communication between Libertie and her mother. Libertie wants to know more about her home and her past, while Cathy wants to focus on the academic future she has long planned for Libertie. The way the novel presents the letters symbolizes this disconnect. Sentences are broken up across the lines, with both letters merged and presented as one fractured whole. Consecutive sentences do not make sense, nor do the snippets of conversation reference one another. The narrator uses this structure to show the way in which Libertie and her mother are always talking at cross purposes, highlighting the fact that they have different and irreconcilable needs and ambitions.

Libertie eventually refuses to write to her mother at all, and this breakdown in communication represents their fractured relationship. Libertie does not know what to say to her mother, while her mother seeks a confrontational resolution to their argument. Libertie denies her this resolution, but also denies her any communication at all. This impasse persists until Libertie decides to return to her mother, which she does on her own terms. Her final letter does not request to be taken back but simply announces that she is coming home. Libertie uses the final letter to assert herself and bring balance to the one-sided relationship that defined her childhood.