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Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text's major themes.
Alternating Narration
The novel is narrated by Lucy and Stephen in alternating first-person perspectives. This technique provides a deeper sense of the beliefs, desires, and motivations of the protagonist and antagonist. The use of the dual narrative perspective creates dramatic irony throughout the book. This motif reveals Stephen’s intentional manipulations of Lucy and of his narcissistic habit of using all human interaction solely as a means of achieving his goals alongside Lucy’s blind trust in and besotted infatuation with him.
While the novel shows events from much of the characters’ lives from both perspectives, Lucy is unequivocally the main character. Her voice begins and ends the novel, and the 2017 events, notably Bree’s wedding, which Stephen also attends, are told only from Lucy’s point of view. The removal of Stephen’s voice from the present day reflects Lucy’s decision to remove him from her life. Once she makes a final break from him, she is able to have a perspective disentangled from his, a change underscored by the novel’s structure.
Pets
Lucy and Stephen’s relationships with pets reveal important truths about them throughout the novel. Stephen’s interactions with animals establish him as a true sociopath, pathologically unable or unwilling to consider others’ feelings. When Stephen accidentally kills Marvin, his younger cousin’s pet turtle, Stephen observes how his emotional life differs from others’. Rather than feeling sadness or guilt, Stephen feels nothing at all. While others treat family dogs with love and affection, Stephen feels contempt for them and their desire for human attention. When his girlfriend Alice tears up at the news of her childhood dog’s cancer, Stephen has an immediate desire to kick the dog in the face. Stephen’s disdain for animals also reveals his antipathy for other people. This attitude is apparent when he compares his girlfriend Alice to a dog when he believes she wants too much attention or depends on him too much.
In contrast, when Lucy foregoes saying goodbye to her beloved family dog to spend the weekend with Stephen’s family, she feels guilty. Lucy redeems herself when, after Stephen ends the relationship, she asks CJ to invite the family to the Cape, so they can together spread Hickory’s ashes.
Mothers
Lucy and Stephen’s mothers function as foils for one another in the book, and the relationships of both women to their children shape the relationships their children make with others. Both Lucy and Stephen begin the book furious with the mothers’ failings. Lucy refers to CJ’s infidelity as “the Unforgiveable Thing,” and Stephen “despises” his mother, Nora. However, Nora and CJ respond very differently to this dynamic. While Nora abandons her family, contributing to Stephen’s anger by depleting his college fund in the divorce, CJ works continually to show Lucy that she loves her despite the years Lucy spends pushing her away. CJ’s unconditional and continuous love for Lucy creates the trust Lucy needs to lean on CJ in her darkest hour and ultimately, to heal. Meanwhile, as a source of disappointment and abandonment in Stephen’s life, Nora seemingly contributes to Stephen’s inability to form loving bonds with women. Stephen is unable to sympathize with Nora’s disability and views her as a burden, as evidenced by his response to her hospitalization later in the novel.
