Dear Reader

Dear Reader,

With this multigenre blog, I attempted to explore the relationship between Tom and Isabel throughout the novel, The Light Between Oceans. I mainly focused on how Isabel copes with grief after losing her children, and how this affects her interactions with Lucy. Isabel's motherly hormones and her love for Isabel contrasted with Tom's logical and honest nature create a rift in their marriage. I researched miscarriage, motherhood, and grief to help me compose my essay and genres. Throughout my pieces, I wove in the golden thread of the lighthouse. In the novel, the lighthouse stands as a physical symbol for hope, love, and safety in the face of danger. Stedman's eloquent descriptions of the Lights enhance the story, and I hoped to include some of that in my writing, as well.

The qualities piece on grief, entitled "Growing Up Grief," I explore the various stages of grief through personification. Isabel experiences profound grief after each miscarriage, as well as after Lucy is returned to her real mother, Hannah. In the same way, Hannah experiences grief at the loss of Lucy and her husband, and her grief is worsened, as she is uncertain of their fate for many years. I tied in the idea of the Lights at the end with the character Acceptance, as the Lights bring hope and peace for the future even after all of Isabel's and Hannah's grief. This is reflective of how the book ends, as well: I don't want to spoil it, but there is a happy and hopeful ending.

In my poem, "Pray for Me," I juxtapose Tom's and Isabel's feelings about Lucy to highlight their separation, as well as the love and care they share for Lucy and each other. I feel like this genre worked really well for expressing my focus of human separation and connection. In this poem, the Lights function as a symbol of hope: the hope that Isabel feels upon adopting Lucy is contained on their island, and Hannah is left hopeless until Tom reaches out to her.

Isabel's diary entry and Tom's logbook also helped to explore the two characters' differences. This provided a more artistic expression of their personalities. Isabel's diary entry is full of love and happiness, and she writes her feelings explicitly, whereas Tom's is very logical and worried, and his true thoughts remain in his mind, unwritten, as he has a very closed-off personality. Tom isn't usually a reflective person: the most that he writes is a few meticulous notes in his logbook out of obligation, but his thoughts (as shown in brackets) are a jumble of emotions. The Lights here show Isabel's hope and love for Lucy, as well as their net of safety and isolation from the reality of their situation.

I hope you enjoy my blog!
Erin