You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir

“It was an unusual pinecone, the one my husband brought home from a business trip as a souvenir for our five-year-old son, Rhett. Like a small wooden grenade, I thought.”

The pinecone is an important symbol in Maggie Smith’s work. When she discovers it, the pinecone is compared to a grenade, symbolizing an immense change in her life and the lives of her family members.

“She wants to reach her hand out, palm open, and take it—even though she knows it will burn her hand.”

Smith struggles to make sense of her experience and to process the grief she feels because of her husband’s failure to tell the truth. Throughout the memoir, Smith wonders if she will ever gain clarity so long as part of her story remains a mystery. In this quotation, she explains that she wants her husband to offer her the truth, to be vulnerable with her. Instead, he continues to deny the affair.

“The play is about a woman who loses her husband, and in losing her husband loses her knowledge about the future.”

When Smith’s husband cheats on her, she loses her knowledge about what her future holds. Smith develops the theme of Divorce as Loss by including the loss of security that comes with this life-altering change. When she was married, Smith knew what her future held. Now that she is divorcing her husband, her future is a question mark, full of uncertainty.