56 pages • 1 hour read
Holly RinglandThe Lost Flowers of Alice Hart
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018A 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
Flowers and Other Flora
Content Warning: This section of the guide references family trauma and grief, child abuse, domestic violence, and suicidal ideation.
Throughout the novel, almost every plant Alice encounters holds a deeper meaning to her. Each time she interacts with a plant, she thinks of what it means, just like her mother, father, and grandmother did, a direct link to the past. Starting with Ruth Stone in the family bloodline, Alice’s ancestors not only raised flowers but created an entire communication system based on them. Based on the Victorian language of flowers called “floriography”—meaning the language of flowers—each flower carries its own special symbolism. For instance, in Alice’s family, yellow bells mean “welcome to a stranger” while blue lady orchids mean “consumed by love” (370-371). This use of floriography was passed down for generations and used by the women at Thornfield, as shown multiple times through their gifting each other flowers and building meaningful bouquets for clients. For Alice, flowers are initially linked to her inability able to speak after trauma in addition to her family heritage and customs. Later, Alice and June still have communication problems and family secrets, so they speak more through flowers:
Every time Alice thought about asking June such things, silence was easier. Silence, and flowers. Sometimes she’d leave them on June’s workbench. A handful of mauve fairy flowers: I feel your kindness. June would always leave her reply on Alice’s pillow. A bunch of tinsel lilies: You please all (191).
The honored Thornfield Dictionary and Alice’s writing of pressed flowers further showcase the importance of flowers and how they help Alice heal, find meaning, and finally uncover the truth of her family’s past.
Perhaps no flower is more meaningful in the novel’s arc than the Sturt desert pea, which means “have courage, take heart” (125). The desert pea is cited the most often in the novel, and it is the flower that June presses into Alice’s locket that contains Agnes’s picture. The desert pea holds special significance for Alice to remember her beloved mother but also overcome her grief with courage. Later, in Ruby’s Aboriginal culture, the desert peas flourish as spiritual “pieces of the star mother’s heart” (253), referring to the goddess who threw her heart to the ground in grief. The story relates to how Alice thinks of Agnes, her own mother. Like Ruby’s people, Alice’s special meaning for the desert peas inspires her.
Monarch Butterflies
Butterflies symbolize transformation, ancestry, and a warrior’s strength. After Alice decorates her truck with monarch butterfly stickers to eliminate the reminders of Thornfield, the butterflies become a larger presence in her life. Dylan gives her the nickname “pinta-pinta,” which means “butterfly” in the Aboriginal language, and soon everyone at the park uses this pet name. Lulu hosts a butterfly-themed birthday party for Alice in which everyone dresses like butterflies, and Alice feels “unquestionably transformed” in her costume (275). Lulu also tells her that monarch butterflies are “daughters of fire” that carry the “souls of warriors who fought and died in battle, and return to feed on the nectar of flowers” (276). This meaning fills Alice with pride and makes her think of her family, such as how brave her mother and June were to endure hardships. In Lulu’s story, the butterfly becomes a larger symbol of strength and change, of rebirth into something better after loss—since the warriors die and then are reborn as butterflies feasting on new happiness.
To honor butterflies as a representation of her self-discovery and independence in the desert, Alice decorates her house with butterflies, down to her sheets and shower curtain. Alice embraces the butterfly as part of her identity because she wants to embody the powerful, renewed meaning of the monarch butterfly, to fly away from her past and be reborn through the fire of the desert. The butterfly thus becomes a key symbol of Alice’s newfound independence and character growth.
Water and Fire
Closely related to the theme of Relationships with the Natural World, fire and water are evolving emblems of Alice’s inner emotions reflected in her changing settings. Water and fire appear countless times in books, settings, and stories that make an impression on Alice. Highlighting the overlapping and complementary nature of the elements, Dylan tells Alice that the national park was once an ancient seabed and that “the desert is an old dream of the sea” (278). Fire and water are thus separate but interconnected elements in Alice’s journey.
Water symbolizes solace, love, and hope, but also loss and betrayal. Water is a constant part of Alice’s childhood near the sea; the ocean fills her with hope and appreciation for nature. When Clem pushes her into the sea and Agnes saves her from drowning, water represents her father’s abuse but also Agnes’s love and Alice’s persistence. At Thornfield, the river is a saving grace for Alice, bringing her back to joy and safety through memories of Agnes. As the river is also where she meets Oggi, it comes to represent friendship and later, love: “The river had brought Oggi to her. He was her home now. He was her story” (179). Her association with the river becomes complicated once she believes Oggi betrays her, thus connecting Alice with the ancestors who also experienced love and loss there: It is where Ruth’s lover was drowned and where June met Clem’s father, who told her that “nothing hurts” in water. Though often joyful, water causes pain again when it floods the flower farm just before Alice leaves.
Fire is also a prominent symbol in Alice’s life. Fire represents rebirth, danger, and guilt. Alice initially connects to the myth of the phoenix, hoping that her father can be reborn through fire. After the accidental housefire, fire comes to represent destruction and grief to Alice. It becomes a harbinger of hardship and change, causing panic attacks whenever she’s around it. As Alice grows older, fire will again represent renewal, but this renewal isn’t always easy. For instance, Oggi’s name means fire, suggesting that he, too, will be a source of both renewal and hardship. Later, like the monarch butterflies being fire daughters, a metaphorical fire fills Alice with resilience and independence, giving her the courage to figuratively burn down her past with Dylan return to her family, and especially to Charlie. In the conclusion, Alice cites how fire and water influenced her life: “Life and other people’s stories had always told her she was blue. […] But Alice’s centre was red. [...] The colour of fire. Of earth. Of heart, and courage” (370). By balancing these two symbolic elements, Alice finds happiness, healing, family love, and a new passion for writing to pursue.
