43 pages • 1 hour read
11 Birthdays: A Wish Novel
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Symbols & Motifs
The Apple Tree Plant
Amanda’s potted apple tree, which she receives on her and Leo’s combined fifth birthday parties, symbolizes her friendship with Leo. After she overhears Leo insulting her on their shared 10th birthday, she goes home and throws the potted plant from her window; it smashes on the yard below. Amanda’s intentional destruction of the potted plant illustrates her decision to abandon her friendship with Leo after his betrayal.
The next year, Leo and Amanda learn from Angelina that the apple tree plants (Leo has a matching one) are grown from apple seeds from their ancestors’ adjoining farms and are therefore involved in the enchantment that causes their 11th birthday to continue repeating itself on a loop. Amanda carefully retrieves the plant, which has taken root in the earth beneath her bedroom, and repots it. Her careful replacement of the plant on her bookshelf illustrates her efforts to repair her relationship with Leo and her commitment to the friendship’s continuation (251).
Back Handspring
The back handspring symbolizes Amanda’s growing confidence in herself. At the beginning of the novel, Stephanie helps Amanda unsuccessfully try a back handspring in her backyard: “time seems to accelerate faster than its normal speed and before I know it, I’m crumpled in a heap, the freshly mown grass tickling the back of my neck” (12). Amanda’s anxiety over performing the back handspring in the tryouts mirrors her fear about the intimidating “cool” girls on the gymnastics team.
As Amanda begins to gain control over the confusing repeating enchantment, she successfully executes a back handspring in her backyard: “I run onto the middle of my lawn and do my best back handspring ever” (168). Her growing self-confidence allows Amanda to perform a successful back handspring at the tryouts and to make the team.
The Gymnastics Tryout and the Band Audition
These two activities, which are held at the same time after school on Amanda’s birthday, represent the tension between who Amanda authentically is and who she feels that she should be. The other girls on the gymnastics team are “the most popular girls in the fifth grade” (11). Stephanie points out to Amanda that, “if we make the team, our status in sixth grade will be secure” (11). On the other hand, the marching band—which Amanda secretly longs to join—is decidedly “uncool.”
Amanda’s decision to attend the gymnastics tryouts, rather than the band audition, on 10 of her 11 repeating birthdays illustrates her desire to fit in, which, in turn, leads her to behave inauthentically. Amanda’s dread and nerves as she prepares for the gymnastics tryout are contrasted with her genuine happiness when she decides to go to the band audition on the 11th 11th birthday. Although Mass doesn’t reveal the results of the audition, Amanda seems to have been successful in her audition because she did what felt authentic to her. Her decision to audition for the band aligns her with Leo, who encourages her to play drums and audition. Gymnastics is associated with girls like Ruby, who is unkind and dismissive of Amanda. Mass suggests that focusing on doing what feels authentic and on spending time with people who support and encourage you to be yourself leads to greater fulfillment and happiness.
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By Wendy Mass
