64 pages • 2 hours read
Lisa ScottolineWhat Happened to the Bennetts
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Blue Heron
The Blue Heron is a symbol of the Bennetts’ daughter Allison. When Jason first arrives at the Delaware safehouse, he has been suppressing his grief about Allison to stay strong for his family. He walks alone to the beach and thinks about Allison, letting the grief take hold, and a Great Blue Heron takes flight near him. The heron’s strength and grace remind Jason of Allison, and the fact that the heron is taking off conjures for Jason an image of Allison’s spirit lifting. This symbol makes such an impact on Jason that he recalls it later in the novel. When he is blindfolded and tied up in Big George’s van, Jason confronts the impossibility of his mission. But instead of cowering or giving up, he calls upon the image of the Blue Heron to give himself the resolve to keep going, for Allison’s sake. Fittingly, when the Bennetts plant a tree in Allison’s honor at the end of the novel, Jason chooses to attach a tag to the tree in the shape of a heron.
“Procedure”
One of the ways that Scottoline renders the FBI as flawed is by revealing their reliance on procedures—the “rules” that Jason eventually refuses to play by. In the first half of the novel, the Bennetts repeatedly push against the FBI. Every time they ask for something, the FBI denies their request by saying it’s not procedure. The line is repeated so often that it becomes a motif, even a parody of the FBI hierarchy; if Dom does not deny a request based on procedure, his boss does instead. The FBI sticks to procedures even when the procedures are not working. Lucinda tells Dom, “Look where they [procedures] got us!” (161). It is one reason Jason must strike out on his own. Ironically, when Wiki turns on the Bennetts, Dom saves Lucinda and Ethan by following procedure.
Ghost Forest
The forest is a symbol of death and grief. As Wiki explains to Jason, ghost forests are caused by climate change and rising sea levels, which flood freshwater marshes with seawater. The salt kills the trees, but they stay standing despite losing all their leaves. Jason brings Ethan to see one such forest, and they are struck by the beauty and significance of the place. Jason feels that the barrier between life and death is especially thin there: “The place struck me as a convergence of life I couldn’t see and death that was staring me in the face” (155). It leads him to confront the fragility of life and the reality of Allison’s death. For presumably the same reason, Ethan feels like Allison’s ghost is there. But the forest also works on a symbolic level. Like the trees, the Bennetts are still standing but dead inside.
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By Lisa Scottoline
