53 pages • 1 hour read
Heart Bones
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Literary Devices
Present Tense, First Person
While the vast majority of novels are written in the past tense, Hoover manages to carry off a lengthy narrative in the present tense. One virtue of present tense is that all actions and emotions described possess an air of immediacy. Readers may note that often when individuals describe an emergency or crisis in real life, they relate the details in the present tense, a sign of the emotional potency of the event. Thus, the narrative, as told in the first person by Beyah, has a heightened tension throughout. A present-tense narrative also lends itself to an ongoing stream of events, chapters, and segments that follow sequentially, as if the narrator is chronologically relating all the necessary elements of an involved story, working toward a resolution. The downside of writing in the present tense is that it creates difficulty in moving from one point in time to another. This creates something of a disconnect, as when the author must explain that Beyah has gone away to college in one chapter and then explain in the next that four years have passed and she is now a graduate.
Genre
While Heart Bones is definitely a contemporary romance, because of its chronological setting and because of the style in which it is written, it also possesses certain atypical elements that demonstrate Hoover’s willingness to cross literary and genre boundaries. The elements of a traditional romance are all present in Heart Bones: two attractive people find themselves at odds before acknowledging their shared attraction; they act upon the powerful love they feel; they encounter even greater obstacles to building a permanent relationship before they end up together. However, Hoover uses protagonists who are younger than most current literary lovers, both of whom have checkered pasts involving illegal activities when they were technically minors. This is unusual ground for romance authors. The author also employs very strong social thematic elements, such as financial disparity and injustice. In these ways, Hoover demonstrates that she will not be constrained to write simple love stories that are not also realistic and socially relevant.
Symbolism
One of the devices Hoover uses to introduce characters is the imparting of symbolic names: figurative nomenclature that give some hint of the character’s personality traits or desires. The name Beyah comes from the Spanish for “beautiful wise one,” which describes what Samson sees in her. Samson, who is tall, strong, confident, and multitalented, is named for the greatest of the Hebrew judges, an incredibly powerful man who was captured by his enemies and received back his strength for one last effort. Sara is also a Hebrew name that means “princess,” which is certainly how her mother, stepfather, and boyfriend treat her. Samson’s father, Rake, bears a name meaning “rambler,” which characterizes the manner in which he sails up and down the Texas coast, rambling from one place to another.
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By Colleen Hoover
