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.
Themes
The Benefits and Losses of Growing Up
Using David’s coming of age as the central focus of the novel, Connolly highlights the benefits and losses associated with leaving childhood and becoming an adult. This theme is especially relevant for young adult readers who, like David, might be struggling to accept difficulties in their lives or let go of parts of their childhood.
One major example of a loss David experiences as he retreats from childhood is the loss of the way things used to be in his family. In accepting his mother’s death, David must also acknowledge that his family will never be the same. Along with this comes the loss of his father’s complete attention. Since Rose and Georgie are now part of his family, a part of his father’s consideration will always belong to them, rather than David. However, along with this loss comes a significant gain. Although David no longer has the ideal family unit from his childhood, he has gained a mother and a brother. At the end of the novel, Connolly writes that David embraces his new role as Georgie’s older brother, and the two share a close relationship as adults. Only by acknowledging the loss of his mother could David embrace the gain of his new family relationships. This example shows how Connolly highlights the losses and benefits involved in growing up.
David also experiences other losses on his journey towards maturity, such as the loss of his friends and protectors, the Woodsman and Roland. He also loses his simple, black-and-white worldview. He learns that people cannot always be categorized as simply good or bad and recognizes the importance of balancing justice and mercy. Along with these losses come gains, as David grows in bravery, independence and purposefulness. He trades in his meaningless daily routines for useful practices that serve a purpose, and he learns to be resourceful when facing adversity. Connolly’s theme of loss and gain reflects the reality that leaving childhood requires one to leave some things behind, but also opens one up to gaining new things, such as new character qualities, accomplishments, and experiences. Although growing up can be painful, it leads to growth and fulfillment.
Accepting the Reality of Death
Throughout David’s progression from boyhood into adulthood, Connolly shows the reality of death as an unavoidable part of life. David’s coming of age culminates in his acceptance of his mother’s death, as well as the reality that others he loves will eventually die as well. At the beginning of the novel, David struggles to accept his mother’s death, and feels like the routines he set for himself should have been enough to save her. This mindset reflects that of a child; if one can just be good enough, nothing bad will happen. His mother’s voice draws David through the sunken garden, and David harbors hope that she may still be alive.
The moment that David enters the other world through the sunken garden, death confronts him. He sees the burning skull of the German pilot in the cockpit of the crashed plane, as well as the decapitated Loup slain by the Woodsman. Connolly highlights evidence of death from both David’s world and the forest world to show that death is unavoidable. It is a reality in the forest world, as well as in David’s war-torn world.
As David progresses on his journey, he faces the deaths of his friends, the Woodsman and Roland, and must use his own wits and bravery to avoid death at the hands of the huntress, Beast, and enchantress. By the time David defeats the enchantress, he has finally accepted the reality of his mother’s death, knowing that he was foolish to ever believe she could still be alive. When the Crooked Man warns David that returning to life in England will mean facing more death—war, aging, disease, and loss of loved ones—David knows he is right, but decides to accept the inevitability of death that will be a part of his life. By the end of the novel, David has lost his father, brother, wife, and child to death, but he is not bitter, nor does he fear his own death. This reality suggests that when David returns to his family in the cottage at the end of the novel, he too is dying.
Through David’s responses to the many deaths in the novel, Connolly shows that accepting the reality of death is an essential part of growing up. Even though real life is much harder than the fantasy worlds of David’s books, refusing to accept reality—both the good and the bad—will only lead to misery.
Stories as a Means of Transformation
Connolly uses stories to highlight the many transformations that take place in the novel. He draws from stories to create the characters and events of Elsewhere, which in turn set David in motion towards adulthood. Connolly shows that stories have the power to transform readers in regard to one’s knowledge and maturity. This theme is first established when David’s mother asserts the special powers stories have, saying stories, “come alive in the telling” and “transform the reader” (3). Her words foreshadow the way stories literally come alive for David, whispering on his shelves, then drawing him through the sunken garden to Elsewhere, where every place and character seems to have come from a story. Connolly incorporates many classic fairytales into his portrayal of this world, but each one has an unexpected twist. The strangeness and danger of this story-based world sends David on his quest to see the king. In this way, Connolly employs stories as a catalyst for David’s departure from childhood and transformation to adulthood.
At several points on his journey, David relies on his knowledge of stories to outsmart an opponent. These situations show the transforming power of stories in regard to learning. David grows in cleverness as he pieces together lessons and warnings from the stories he knows, and he applies them to the story-based situations of the other world. For example, David remembers the solution to the troll’s riddle, which allows him to cross the bridge safely. He gains confidence from his success, and a day later, bravely escapes the huntress by outsmarting her, drawing on lessons he has learned from his fairytale books as well as the Woodsman’s tale of the gingerbread house. These examples show how stories can act as a source of learning and can transform one to think and act differently.
Finally, Connolly uses stories to highlight David’s growth in maturity as he learns that the clear-cut rules governing stories do not always apply to real life. David’s beloved stories are predictable, with black-and-white conventions, such as good receiving reward, evil receiving punishment, and soldiers and knights entering battle fearlessly. However, David learns that these rules do not apply in real life. His mother dies despite his faithfulness to his daily routines. He recognizes that punishment need not be cruel to serve justice. Finally, he meets a soldier who, although he is brave in some ways, fears death and only fights battles that are possible to win. As David navigates the differences between stories and real life, he learns to accept realities such as loss, war, and fear. Simultaneously, he learns to value love, friendship, mercy, and family. Connolly’s contrast between stories and reality marks David’s transformation into a mature young man and furthers the theme that stories have the power to bring change.
