The Nature of the Beast

Laurent Lepage is famous in Three Pines for carrying a carved wooden stick everywhere. While he was alive, Laurent used the stick in his games of pretend; the stick therefore symbolizes childhood innocence and imagination. Laurent’s curiosity and imagination lead him to experiment with inventing fantastical stories. While this practice brings him joy and makes his short life vivid and interesting, it also means that no one takes him seriously when he tells the community about finding a giant gun in the woods. Because Laurent’s acts of imagination are joyful and innocent, he doesn’t realize that he is in danger when he encounters the gun, which symbolizes greed and violence.

The stick also plays a key role in the plot; when Gamache realizes that the stick was not found with Laurent’s body, his suspicions that the boy may have been murdered are confirmed. The stick is located next to the gun, confirming that Laurent was killed near the gun. Because the stick symbolizes happiness and innocence when Laurent runs around with it, the presence of it lying abandoned on the ground evokes the terrible loss associated with the violent death of a child. Laurent’s innocence is lost when he stumbles upon the gun because this incident marks his entry into a world in which adults engage war and murder, and where people commit terrible acts in order to protect themselves and their perceived interests.