47 pages • 1 hour read
Neil GaimanAnansi Boys
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2005A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Mirrors
Underlining the theme of Duality of the Self, mirrors and reflective surfaces appear often as a recurring motif within the novel. The first mention of a mirrored gazing ball happens early in the novel, though at this point it’s only referred to as a “lawn ornament” (31) that caused the rift between Fat Charlie and Mrs. Dunwiddy; later, the narrator reveals its significance. Shortly after, Fat Charlie discovers a photo of himself standing beside a mirror, so that the photo appears to show two boys. When Mrs. Higgler tells Fat Charlie about his brother, she draws his attention to the photo: “It is you, and it is also your brother” (36).
This statement is cleverly worded so that it is clear both boys are present within the photograph, but it’s not clear whether they have been separated or whether Spider still only exists inside Fat Charlie. If the latter, the moment suggests that mirrors not only reveal what’s true but also what’s more than true.
The gazing ball appears later, when Fat Charlie goes to visit Mrs. Dunwiddy and sees one in her yard; it immediately inspires a sense of profound terror. This moment works well to hint at the childhood experience that led to his separation from Spider, but it also alludes to the traditional folklore surrounding these ornaments. In both America and the UK, they are popular garden decorations: “[a] Big glass thing, like a giant Christmas tree ornament” (225). They were once believed to protect the home and ward against evil. It was thought that if a witch caught their reflection in the mirrored surface, they would run away. This is the exact experience that Fat Charlie, the son of a trickster god, has when he looks at it. This ornament also serves as the pivotal device in the boys’ story; after breaking it apart, Fat Charlie was broken apart in the same way.
Another mirror appears in the turning-point scene where Grahame Coats kills Maeve Livingstone. As she lifts a gold locket, she catches his reflection on its surface; this allows her a moment of preparation to dodge his attack. This forces Grahame Coats to engage in a fight, rather than taking her down swiftly. It’s the violence of this crime that awakens him to his true nature and Tiger’s influence. The locket might not have saved Maeve’s life, but it did push Grahame Coats to even more brutality and desperation as he murdered her.
Blood
The image and idea of blood appears often, usually to represent Tiger or Grahame Coats. It’s portrayed as a primal essence and the antithesis to the knowledge and cunning personified by Anansi and his stories.
We see this connection made for the first time during Grahame Coats’s turning point of personal transformation, after he kills Maeve Livingstone. When he discovers her blood spattered across his clothes and his hand, “he surprised himself by putting his hand to his mouth and licking the gobbet of blood off it, like a cat, with his red tongue” (180). This is the reader’s first hint that a door has opened between him and Tiger. Later, this symbolism appears again after he locks up Rosie and her mother and feels Tiger’s presence with him. As he drinks his wine, we understand that he’s really craving something else: “It should be, he thought, the colour of blood” (266).
Even though blood is portrayed as a symbol of primal darkness, it’s also presented in connection with life. Tiger attempts to teach Fat Charlie this by saying, “the meaning of life is the hot blood of your prey on your tongue” (153). Perhaps inadvertently, he’s landed on a deep, universal truth. Later, when Spider attempts to create a golem to help him escape from Tiger, blood is an essential ingredient. In both cases, blood is intrinsically connected with agency and life.
Blood is also mentioned frequently in connection with “bloodlines,” specifically the one linking Anansi, Spider, and Fat Charlie. The Bird Woman specifically asks for this in return for dispatching Spider, and Fat Charlie, yet unlearned in the ways of this world, agrees. As Fat Charlie and Spider work together to secure both their futures, blood becomes both a literal and metaphorical symbol of the thing linking them together. In this sense, blood becomes a symbol of the duality of living, the darkness and the light.
Bird’s Feather
As Fat Charlie barters with the gods for help dislodging Spider from his life, Bird gives him a feather as a token of their agreement. The phrase “something of equal value” suggests it might be an object of magical power, but the reality is that it merely serves as a symbol of their binding promises. However, it becomes an important device within the plot as it’s Fat Charlie’s search for the feather later that brings him together with the other central characters in one place. In literature, this type of device is called a “MacGuffin” (a term attributed to screenwriter Angus MacPhail)—a tangible object or objective that launches the characters into action. Here, Gaiman uses the feather to assemble his characters.
Although a feather has no monetary value in the mundane world, here it represents the folkloric currency of promises and tokens within stories like Anansi’s. Later, Fat Charlie uses the feather to barter back Spider’s life. Although the Bird Woman no longer has him to give, she offers Fat Charlie something of equal value in exchange, honoring the laws of that world: Spider’s tongue. As Fat Charlie makes his trade, he is released from his original promise and his mistakes: “He felt lighter, then, as if she had taken more from him than just an old feather” (316). While the feather never transcends its physical limitations in any mystical or supernatural way, here it becomes a symbol of Fat Charlie’s entire overarching story.
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