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For how many years had there been federally funded programs trying to prevent suicide with billboards and hotlines? It was no wonder it was getting worse. You can’t sell life is okay when it’s not.
Suicide is a pernicious problem in the Native American community, especially for young adults. Jacquie believes that the federal programs meant to alleviate this concern are not helpful. The billboards and posters advertising mental health resources and asking teens to choose life are useless because they are trying to “sell” the promise that life is worth living. Young adults aren’t buying it, because they can see the pervasive misery in their communities and feel that adulthood has nothing to offer them. Ultimately, Jacquie understands that the suicide epidemic will not be solved until root problems of poverty, alcoholism, drug abuse, and other systemic issues are solved.
In this case Jacquie was the spider, and the minifridge was the web. Home was to drink. To drink was the trap.
When Jacquie was young, her mother explained that the spider is a special creature because its web is both a home and a trap. Jacquie has since found the spider to be an important symbol in her life because she relates to the idea that her home can also be her trap. For Jacquie, alcohol is her coping mechanism; it is the thing she turns to when she can no longer bear the pain and difficulty of her life. However, it is also her trap; her alcoholism negatively impacted her late daughter, and it has stopped her from reconnecting with her sister and grandchildren.
Before she acknowledges to herself that it’s him, before she can feel or think or decide anything, she’s already moving toward her grandson.
Jacquie begins the novel unable to come home to her grandchildren. Both she and her sister Opal know that she should be taking care of them; not only is it her responsibility to do so after the death of her daughter, but reconnecting with her family would be good for her spirit. However, her trauma keeps her away. At the end of the novel, when Jacquie has finally found the strength to return to Oakland, she is the one who saves Orvil from the shooting, despite having not yet met him in person. She is drawn by a powerful force to her grandson and to fulfilling her responsibility of protecting him. In this moment, Jacquie begins to heal from the traumas that have forced her to abandon her family, and she moves toward a more hopeful life.
