73 pages • 2 hours read
John ConnollyThe Book of Lost Things
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
Sensory Imagery: Smells
Connolly uses scent descriptions to immerse the reader in the forest world alongside David. He describes the many smells David encounters to create a tone of foreboding and highlight the evil that dominates that world. For example, David smells animals and a burning smell during his waking dreams. This sensory imagery acts as foreshadowing for the burning airplane and decapitated Loup he encounters when he enters the forest world. The smell of blood and decay in the air grows strongest just before he discovers the decapitated Loup. The descriptions of smells in David’s waking dreams and his initial entrance into Elsewhere show the reader that this world is dangerous and full of evil.
Connolly’s use of smells also reinforces the theme that death is a reality that David must face. When David and Roland encounter the corpses of soldiers slain by the Beast, the smell of blood and decomposition is strong. Similarly, when they approach the Fortress of Thorns, the air has a musty smell, “like the interior of a crypt” (235), and inside the fortress, the courtyard smells of death and decay, reflecting the many dead bodies that lie on the ground decomposing. As David faces death on multiple occasions, Connolly’s use of smells shows the unavoidable confrontation with death that David experiences on a sensory level.
Finally, Connolly’s descriptions of smells reinforces the evil nature of villainous characters such as the enchantress, the Beast, and the Crooked Man. The enchantress’ breath stinks of “putrefaction” (256) as if she is already decaying inside, and the Beast smells “like rotting, burning flesh” (211) as it burns to death inside the village. Furthermore, the Crooked Man’s breath smells like sour berries to match his wine-colored lips, and similar to the enchantress, a “foul gas” comes from his body when he dies (324), suggesting that he is already decomposing on the inside. These uses of smells reinforce the malevolence of particular characters and equate the stench of decay with evil.
War
War functions as a motif in the novel that pushes David towards adulthood, furthering the theme that death is an unavoidable reality, and loss is a part of life. Connolly uses World War II as the historical period in which David lives. Therefore, David is exposed to knowledge of warfare and weapons as a part of his daily life, especially since his father works to decode German messages. David’s thoughts about the War foreshadow the battles and warfare he will later face on his journey through Elsewhere. For example, David considers the wartime pilots, wondering if they think of the people inside the buildings they attack before releasing their bombs. He puts himself in the pilot’s shoes, deciding that the Germans are bad and ultimately deserve to be bombed since they started the fight. His oversimplification of the war reveals his childish mindset. Later, David wields his own weapon—a sword—and uses it to kill a thief in self-defense. Although he acts bravely, he immediately starts crying, recognizing that he has taken a life. His response shows his growing maturity; he no longer simplifies people as bad or automatically deserving of death. His imaginings about World War II bombers foreshadow the battles he will face in Elsewhere and serve as a contrast to the battles he fights throughout the novel.
Another way that Connolly uses the war motif is to highlight the reality of death and evil in the world. At the end of the novel, David wants to escape the constant dangers and battles of Elsewhere, but the Crooked Man warns him that wars also run rampant in David’s world, and even in times of peace, the evil nature of man will still be present. By this point, David has learned that there is no escape from these realities; one must face them rather than run from them. Connolly shows that wars are a manifestation of the evil inside people, and adulthood involves an acknowledgement of that evil. However, an important part of maturity is choosing to act on one’s good nature, rather than one’s evil nature. This is what David does when he chooses to call Georgie “brother” rather than betray him to the Crooked Man. Even though war is an inescapable reality, one has control over one’s own decisions and can choose to live a life of goodness rather than evil.
Nature
Connolly uses descriptions of nature at the beginning of the novel to create a sense of suspense and foreshadow the other world David will enter. Ivy creeps into David’s room, and critters burrow into his closet. When David cuts the ivy, it grows back even stronger and thicker than before, and the distinction between nature and his room becomes “blurred and unclear” (34). These descriptions of nature give the sense that nature is pulling David towards a particular destination, summoning him to the sunken garden, where he will cross over into Elsewhere. David also notices that the forest described in his books bears a striking resemblance to the forest that backs up to Rose’s house. Connolly’s parallel between the nature in David’s stories and the nature surrounding his house foreshadows to the reader that just as the natural world has crossed over into his room and yard, so will he cross over into another world.
In addition to encountering ivy in his bedroom, David also encounters ivy in the forest, and this ivy shows itself to be even more alive than the ivy at home. Connolly employs personification to depict the ivy’s ability to fight the wolves and protect David and the Woodsman. Similarly, Connolly also personifies the trees of the forest, as the trees bleed when struck, and the Woodsman dresses their wounds. Connolly depicts the forest as having feelings when the Woodsman shares that flowers with childlike faces spring up in memoriam of children who were lost to the evil forces present in the forest.
Finally, Connolly also uses nature to depict the sharp contrast between good and evil in the land. For the majority of the novel, the daylight in the other world is dim, “as though dawn was just approaching or the day was at last drawing to its close” (65). Connolly describes this half-light at several points throughout the novel to create a mood of evil and foreboding. However, he contrasts evil with good when, at the end of the novel, the death of the Crooked Man results in a transformation of the natural world. The sunlight comes through the clouds as David returns home, and when he later returns to the forest world as an old man, he sees that all signs of evil, such as the Loups and the flower children, are gone. The changes in nature Connolly describes provide evidence for the change that took place when good conquered evil.
