52 pages • 1 hour read
Kristin HarmelThe Paris Daughter
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A 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
Murals of the Night Sky
Both Elise and “Lucie” decorate the walls of their studios with murals depicting a starry sky and the Bois de Boulogne woods. The murals symbolize the unbreakable connection between mother and daughter, as well as the link between art, fate, and identity.
Elise paints the first mural in the studio of her apartment as a sanctuary away from the stress and hardship of the war. Mathilde, who lives her early years under curfew, is enamored with the painted sky. Mother and child spend many evenings in the studio together, deepening the bond between them, and Elise repeats the phrase “Under these stars, fate will guide you home” each night. When Elise is forced to leave Mathilde behind with the Foulons, she paints a replica of the mural in her bedroom in Aurignon in order to feel close to the absent Mathilde. Once Elise returns to Paris and discovers that Mathilde is reportedly dead, she paints and repaints the night sky of the original to keep it alive and moving. The murals therefore represent Elise’s desire to remain close with her daughter regardless of the obstacles between them.
Years later, the adult “Lucie” decorates her own studio with a version of the Bois de Boulogne mural, complete with a starry sky and the oft-repeated phrase. Although she cannot clearly remember Elise and is ignorant of her own identity as Mathilde, the connection remains between her and Elise, symbolized by the mural. As “Lucie” paints, she comes to remember and uncover more and more of her memories as Mathilde. The mural provides Elise with the final confirmation of Lucie’s true identity, and it is the backdrop for their final reunion as mother and daughter. Through the repeated motif of the mural, the link between art, fate, and identity is presented in its clearest and most distilled form.
Birds
Birds are a repeated motif through the course of the novel. They are primarily associated with the Foulon children and their tragic fates as well as with art, grief, and compassion. In the first chapter written from Juliette’s perspective, she associates her desire to help Elise with the desire she once had to save a wounded bird. Given that she believes that helping Elise may alleviate her guilt over “allowing” Antoinette’s death, the association between compassion and guilt are merged through the bird motif.
While taking care of Mathilde and encouraging her to identify as one of the Foulon family, Juliette tells a bedtime story likening the Foulon children to a flock of baby birds. Each bird symbolizes one of the five children, including the deceased Antoinette and Mathilde herself. Although Mathilde initially protests against her own inclusion in the flock, she eventually succumbs and contributes to the story, which foreshadows Juliette’s eventual success in pushing Mathilde into the role of “Lucie.”
The association is reinforced through Elise’s artwork depicting birds. The first sculpture that Elise creates in the novel is a flock of anguished birds tethered to the ground. The sculpture is an homage to Juliette’s grief over the loss of Antoinette. Similarly, one of the first successful sculptures that Elise carves after the end of the war and the death of Mathilde is a flock of birds. The motif of birds is therefore inextricably linked with tragedy and grief.
The Recreated La Librairie des Rêves in New York
In Part 3 of the novel, Juliette has recreated a copy of La Librairie des Rêves in the French district of New York. The new bookshop is an exact replica of the original, which was destroyed in the bombing that killed Juliette’s family. The recreated store is a symbol representing Juliette’s inability to let go of the past and move forward with her life.
Whereas the original bookshop was a welcoming place where all the characters found comfort, the recreated bookshop is unnerving and off-putting. This reflects the theme of trauma and its impact on memory; no matter how desperately Juliette clings to her memories of happier days, the original bookshop was also a site of great tragedy. No matter how Juliette might try to forget or erase the reality of her loss, time continues to degrade her memories and distance her further from the past. The bookshop is the site of Juliette’s meetings with Ruth and Elise and where she has most of her conversations with her deceased family, reinforcing the association between the location and Juliette’s unhealthy fixation on the past.
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By Kristin Harmel
