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Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text's major themes.
Cooking
Elizabeth approaches cooking with the same precision and seriousness we see in her work as a chemist. She blurs traditional gender roles by repeatedly reminding her audience that cooking is chemistry, and vice versa. She also promotes the idea that everyone, regardless of their gender identity, can cook. Instead of women being confined to the kitchen and kept out of the lab, “Supper at Six” emphasizes the idea that any kitchen is already a lab. In her kitchen, as in her life and in her research, Elizabeth embraces experimentation, records and quantifies failures, and celebrates successes. She also uses her culinary skills to nurture her loved ones, often tailoring the content of meals specifically to meet people’s nutritional needs. Elizabeth's approach to cooking mirrors her approach to her scientific career and her life as a whole.
Rowing
Rowing is a physically demanding sport that requires determination and endurance. It’s often painful and regularly actively unpleasant, but the moments of euphoria on the water make the pain seem worthwhile. Although there are female rowers, it is primarily a male-dominated sport. Elizabeth initially participates in it initially to make Calvin happy, but she quickly becomes an avid rower in her own right. When rowing appears in the novel, it’s a physical manifestation of Elizabeth’s determination to push through any obstacle, whether on the water or in the lab. She doesn’t let pregnancy, grief, or the fact that she’s mostly rowing either alone or with men deter her. She keeps pushing herself because even though the process is unpleasant, she wants to reap the rewards.
Rowing can be a solo activity, but it’s mostly one that involves other people. It’s notable that when Calvin brings Elizabeth out on the water for the first time, they’re using a pair boat, the most difficult kind of rowing craft to operate. This temperamental, wobbly little craft mirrors the way the lovers are isolated and set against the world in their professional lives. It’s just Calvin and Elizabeth, facing down all of their disapproving coworkers. When Calvin first dies, Elizabeth only rows by herself on the erg, a reflection of her mental state. On the stationary rowing machine, she’s stuck, exhausting herself without moving forward. She’s in pain but not making visible progress. When she begins to recover from her grief, Dr Meyers helps her to find a community she can row with, which mirrors her process of finding allies and friends at KCTV and Hastings. What happens on the river is always a reflection of Elizabeth’s emotional state, and her professional and personal struggles.
The Scientific Method
The scientific method is a step-by-step process that researchers use to understand different phenomena when doing experiments. Because Elizabeth is a chemist by profession, she applies the principles of the scientific method—hypothesis, experimentation, observation, and conclusion—to both her chemical research and her cooking. She uses logic and evidence-based reasoning to fix issues that arise when cooking her dishes, and to eliminate imperfections in flavor and appearance. Like any good scientist, she is willing to repeat experiments over and over to get the best possible result. The reader sees this in her attempts to perfect lasagna and in her projects with Calvin. This stands her in good stead on “Supper at Six,” where her recipes are popular because they are easy to repeat and have been thoroughly vetted. Anyone can reproduce the dishes she creates, provided they follow the instructions. This is the same set of conditions that make up a successful experimental procedure in chemistry. Elizabeth’s spinach bake and her abiogenesis proofs could be replicated by any scientist with access to the correct materials.
