51 pages • 1 hour read
Layla
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Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
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BetaSymbols & Motifs
Swimming Pool
The swimming pool at the bed-and-breakfast is the setting for several important scenes in the novel and symbolizes transformation. First, Layla and Leeds go in the pool with their clothes on the night they meet at Aspen’s wedding. Their first kiss takes place in the pool, and they feel an intense connection.
Later, when Leeds and Layla return to the house, Layla spends a lot of her time at the swimming pool. She is not thrilled about being in the isolated house, but she does feel a sense of calm and peace when she is in or near the pool. When Aspen and Chad visit, Layla tells them that the pool is her favorite part of the house; whether it is Sable or Willow inside her body, they both seem to feel more at ease around the water.
Finally, the pool plays a pivotal role in Layla’s plan to kill herself so her spirit can reenter her body. She asks Leeds to help her drown in the pool. This scene is one of several that recalls the night Leeds and Layla met. There is irony in the fact that Leeds must help Layla die in the pool so they can be reunited in the way they were in the beginning.
Strands of Fiber
Throughout Layla, Hoover evokes strands of hair, rope, and string. For example, Leeds says that he ate a strand of Layla’s hair one day, and he imagines that it is wrapped around his heart, choking it. Later, Leeds ties Layla’s arm to the bed, holding her against her will. In both of these examples, the items have negative connotations: they are restrictive and harmful.
In other contexts, however, these items can symbolize connection; they keep things tethered together and grounded. After Layla’s injury, Leeds feels as though they are drifting apart. Layla’s spirit, Willow, is drifting around, disembodied and fluid. Leeds and Willow crave lost connections during a confusing time, and hair, rope, string, and thread pull things together and keep them in place.
Corazón del País Bed-and-Breakfast
The bed-and-breakfast where Leeds and Layla first meet, and then return to, is the main setting of the novel and symbolizes their point of connection. The first time they talk to each other, Layla tells Leeds that corazón del país means “heart of the country” in Spanish; it is named that because its location in Kansas is the center point of the contiguous United States.
It is also the center of the novel’s action and at the center of Leeds’s and Layla’s lives. When Layla is shot by Sable and briefly dies, her spirit floats out of her body and finds its way back to the house; she intuitively knows that that is an important place for her.
On the night of Aspen’s wedding, Layla says that she loves the bed-and-breakfast and wouldn’t mind living there. However, when Leeds takes her back a year after her injury, she is not happy to be there and barely seems to remember it. Her new attitude is a clue that Layla’s body is inhabited by someone else’s spirit.
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By Colleen Hoover
