54 pages • 1 hour read
Jennifer McMahonThe Winter People
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Impact of Loss and Grief on the Human Psyche
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death by suicide, pregnancy loss, and child death.
Many of the characters in The Winter People have been impacted by death and loss in a way that has changed them, physically and mentally. The novel portrays how the death or loss of a loved one can change a person. While it can provoke mental instability, it can also be a motivator to take action. The ability to revive the dead through the “sleeper” ritual, despite the consequences, show the desperate measures a grieving person will take to see their lost loved one again.
It is normal after the death of a loved one to experience depression, sadness, and grief. This is shown through the experiences of the three primary protagonists, Sara, Katherine, and Ruthie. After her daughter’s body was found in the well, Sara’s world is shattered. She describes feeling “as though [she is] floating outside [her] body” (120). She rejects the sympathy of others, preferring instead to stay in bed alone. She refuses to eat.
Katherine goes through a similar mourning process following the death of her son and husband. She leaves behind everyone and everything she knows in Boston, withdrawing into herself and her private world. Like Sara, she also neglects self-care and food, as “the idea of actually going to the trouble of cooking a proper meal for just herself seemed silly” (79). Ruthie handles the death of her father by avoid thinking or talking about it. Her desire to leave West Hall could be read as a desire to get away from where the death happened. Her mother, Alice, similarly avoids discussion of his death; she “made it sound as if he’d gone off on a trip” (53) when she discusses his passing. The characters experience a sense of denial of the tragic reality of their circumstances.
For Katherine and Sara, grief is a powerful motivator that spurs them into action. For instance, Katherine is driven to understand the mysteries around the death of her husband, which results in her move to West Hall. She also uses her experiences as a catalyst for her art that depicts her husband’s final moments. Most critically, however, Katherine and Sara are driven by their grief to do the “sleeper” ritual so they can see their loved ones again. As Sara thinks when she unearths the envelope with the ritual instructions, “What I wouldn’t give to have my Gertie back for seven whole days!” (138) When Katherine performs the ritual, she thinks the same thing: “Seven whole days. What a gift! They could live a lifetime in seven days” (325). The finality of death—and the possibility of its suspension—creates such a sense of desperation that the mourners are willing to take large risks to see their loved ones again.
The Intersection of Folklore and Reality
The Winter People explores how folklore blends into reality both in the past and the present. Within the world of the novel, there are a mix of folkloric beliefs that the characters hold. Some of these prove to be true, some turn out to be false, while the reality of some beliefs is left ambiguous.
In the novel, there are zombie-like figures known as “sleepers” that can be summoned by a ritual described by an Indigenous woman. Although its existence is largely kept a secret, the magic ritual is actually able to revive the dead for seven days. The notion of “sleepers” plays on a long lineage of horror stories about zombies, vampires, and ghosts; all of these stories suggest that “death is not an ending, but a beginning” (126). This power comes at a terrible price: It results in the creation of Gertie as a vampire-like creature who has eternal life and survives on humans. This penalty is typical of folklore, where there is always a price to pay for subverting the natural order of things.
The novel also shows how real-life events can be transformed over time into folklore. For instance, Sara lives for decades following her presumed death. The villagers, however, are afraid of her curse and therefore leave offerings for her on the full moon. Decades later, long after Sara has actually passed, the villagers continue this practice. Similarly, Ruthie’s boyfriend Buzz saw a short, gray “creature” with a “kind of dresslike robe” (58) in a cornfield near the Devil’s Hand. This was most likely Gertie, the sleeper, who actually exists in the novel. However, Buzz interprets it as an alien sighting. This shows how people reinterpret actual events to conform with their existing folkloric beliefs.
Finally, there are spooky elements of the story that are left unexplained or ambiguous. For instance, Fawn often seems to be talking to herself. When Ruthie asks her sister why she doesn’t play with the other children, Fawn says she is “busy […] playing with the friends [she] already ha[s]” (65). Fawn has a particularly close relationship with her doll, Mimi, who “was always whispering to Fawn, telling her secrets” (91). This could be interpreted in one of two ways. It is possible to see Fawn’s behavior as that of an isolated child in a rural environment with an active imagination trying to entertain herself without television. However, it could also be indicative that Fawn has some kind of supernatural ability to see things the others cannot. There is also the possibility that the doll, Mimi, is possessed by a spirit, perhaps that of Gertie, which is a classic folkloric trope. These elements show how folklore exists in a space between fact and fiction.
The Strength of Parent-Child Relationships
The characters are motivated by the strength of their parent-child relationships. These close bonds show the love and dedication many parents have to their children’s safety and survival. In the case of Ruthie and Alice, the bond is shown both ways: Ruthie demonstrates her love to her adoptive mother by acting bravely to save her, while Alice dedicates her life to raising and protecting Ruthie.
There are several sets of parent-child relationships in the novel. A primary one is the bond between Sara and Gertie. Sara is particularly dedicated to Gertie because she suffered several pregnancy losses and the death of her infant son before Gertie was born. They have their own private methods of communication, share secrets, and are physically close. Martin, Sara’s husband, “worried that Sara’s attachment to Gertie simply wasn’t […] healthy” (14). Sara is so protective of Gertie that she does not even allow her niece Amelia to take Gertie for a weekend. Martin’s worry about their close bonds foreshadows the desperate measures Sara takes to revive Gertie following her death. When Gertie is transformed into a sleeper doomed to live for eternity, Sara does not hesitate to fake her own death so that she can care for Gertie for the rest of her life. As a sign of her extreme dedication, Sara even brings Gertie “human blood.”
Alice’s maternal nature extends to those who are not her biological children. This shows that parent-child bonds do not need to be rooted in blood relations. When Ruthie’s parents are murdered, Alice does not hesitate to take Ruthie in and raise her as her own. She even extends her compassion to Gertie: Instead of being horrified or angry, Alice recognizes that Gertie “couldn’t help what she was” (362) and decides to effectively adopt Gertie as well. Ruthie comes to understand this sentiment, telling her sister that Gertie “didn’t ask for any of this” (371). This recognition on Ruthie’s part is indicative of her compassionate nature and her determination to care for and protect others.
Ruthie does not relent in her determination to save her mother. When Katherine gives Ruthie the opportunity to back out of the cave exploration, Ruthie insists on going along, stating firmly, “We’re going to help you find Mom” (304). This is all the more significant because Ruthie has just learned that she was adopted and that Alice is not her biological mother. While she could be resentful, she decides instead to show her commitment to their parent-child relationship. Thus, in The Winter People, parent-child relationships are a key motivating factor that shapes the characters’ identities and actions.
