Lincoln in the Bardo

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-23

Part 1, Chapters 24-44

Part 1, Chapters 45-55

Part 2, Chapters 56-73

Part 2, Chapters 74-108

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Symbols & Motifs

The Bardo

A bardo is a Buddhist space between life and full death, where dead souls stay until they achieve enlightenment and move on in the cycle of reincarnation. Although Saunders’s version of the bardo does not strictly adhere to concept as laid out in The Tibetan Book of the Dead, it functions similarly. In the novel, ghosts become trapped in the bardo until they can acknowledge that they are dead and let go of the obsessions with their past lives that anchor them in the material world. In Saunders’s bardo ghosts from different historical periods and socioeconomic classes are forced together, recreating the melting pot American ideal—and showing how far the country has yet to go to achieve that ideal through the ghosts’ racist, sexist, and otherwise prejudiced treatment of each other.

The White House

Willie is buried in a white stone tomb, referred to as his white stone home. This white home directly alludes to the White House, the official residence of Willie’s father, President Lincoln. In the bardo, Willie becomes an influential figure, as ghosts who believe he has some greater connection to the world of the living line up to seek an audience with him and ask for favors—an image that echoes the role of the president in the US. However, though Willie’s white stone home marks him as different, it does not prevent him from suffering the same fate as other bardo spirits—he almost falls victim to the same vines that permanently capture Elise. Similarly, in a democracy, the White House is not a castle—ideally, presidents are subject to the same set of laws as other citizens. But the novel concludes that the White House has the power to offer hope and change. Just as his father will eventually issue the Emancipation Proclamation ending slavery and win the Civil War, so too does Willie liberate many of the ghosts from the bardo.

Memory

In this novel, memory is an important motif. Saunders’s fictional firsthand accounts of the time from letters and diary entries, and the fictional historical textbooks that analyze and collect these accounts, are a form of historical memory. Painting an often conflicting picture of Abraham Lincoln’s reputation at the start of the Civil War, these accounts vary from resentful to admiring, and raise tension in the novel by showing how much pressure Lincoln was under while dealing with the early death of his beloved son. In the bardo, we see personal memories. Ghosts are so intent on replaying the most important moments of their lives and so unwilling to see the truth of their deaths, that they are unable to move on. Only when the ghosts come to terms with reality can they escape the trap of memory.