47 pages • 1 hour read
Time of the Child
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Symbols & Motifs
Faha
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.
The fictional town of Faha is a symbol of predictability that supports The Interplay Between Statis and Change. Located on the Irish coast, Faha is a rural village. Living there requires resilience because of the barren landscape and the frequently inclement weather. The town is also widely known as a place where nothing happens and thus where life seems untouched by the forces of the outside world.
These facets of Faha inspire the town’s insular community. For example, “[i]n Faha, comment and commentary [are] close cousins, and because for the bit of news the payment [is] the bit of news back, it [is] hard to tell who [is] doing the telling and who the listening” (91). The townspeople are well acquainted with each other and often get involved in one another’s business. When Ronnie doesn’t leave the house to care for the baby in secret for a few days, the villagers begin talking about where she’s been and what might be wrong with her. Therefore, the Troys worry that news of the baby will spread fast because they know how hungry their neighbors are for information. While the Faha citizens’ gossiping feels intrusive at times, their constant conversations with each other weave “the invisible stitchwork by which the [town is] held together” (91). The villagers know that they can rely on each other. Indeed, Jude goes to Jack and Ronnie’s after he finds the baby because he can trust them. The town’s predictability thus affords the characters a sense of security, even when they’re feeling trapped or alone.
Perfume
The perfume that Jack gets from the pharmacy is a symbol of longing. When Jack remembers his relationship with Annie Mooney, he often recalls the scent she would wear. He is overwhelmed by emotion when the chemist gives him the bottle of perfume because it awakens his memories of his unrequited love. He hides the bottle in his things, deciding not to show it to Ronnie because it’s a private channel to his relationship with Annie. After the car crash, he’s thrilled to see that it didn’t break the perfume bottle. He holds onto it thereafter, “knowing it [is] there to revisit in memory the reality of love” (280). Indeed, because he finds “the substance […] strangely comforting” (280), he sprays himself with the perfume before Christmas Mass. The scent lets him feel close to Annie again and reifies his longing for his lost love.
Ronnie’s Stories
Ronnie’s stories are a symbol of self-expression. Growing up, Ronnie began writing “first for herself, but when her sisters came under her jurisdiction, she would read them the stories that filled her copybooks” (121). Her early stories primarily took “place in Paris or London” because Ronnie was convinced that “[r]eal life was elsewhere” (122). The stories let her imagine and create new worlds for herself. Furthermore, she could realize her dreams through writing. Because her writing was so personal, Ronnie burned her stories at one point because she felt embarrassed, convinced that the stories were evidence of her vanity. However, she later returned to writing when she realized that she could use the pastime to process her experiences in Faha in the present. Writing thus grants Ronnie a way to catalog what she’s lived through and express the emotional effects of these experiences.
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