59 pages • 1 hour read
Allison LarkinThe People We Keep
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A 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
Guitar
April’s guitar is her lifeline and integral to the novel’s depiction of Expression Through Music. It is the instrument through which she processes and expresses emotions and the conduit for sharing her lyrics with the world. Her guitar is the most important thing in her life outside of her son, and without it she is lost. Her original guitar was a gift from her father, who also helped introduce her to folk music. His destruction of the guitar in a fit of anger decisively breaks even this tenuous bond and temporarily disconnects her from her music. Without the guitar, she feels adrift and uncertain of who she is, further complicating her turn away from her family of origin. She even suggests that Adam can’t truly know her without knowing about the guitar, saying, “[I]t’s just, it’s important. It’s the most important” (131).
Once April gains another guitar, it becomes an extra limb. She takes it everywhere, including into unknown and potentially dangerous situations. It is a comfort to have it with her at all times, and she is terrified to lose it or have it stolen. It follows April through the narrative and is a means for her to make a living through performing. In a time of her life in which the people around her are in flux, the guitar is a rock for her to rely on.
April’s guitar is also a marker for how supported she feels. Twice in the novel, April’s guitar breaks. The first is the result of April’s father’s actions. The second comes when April goes into labor and falls, cracking the guitar and leaving April to recall the incident with her father: “There were splinters in the dirt. Was that now, or was it then?” (349). This is a passing thought, however. April is now surrounded by people who love and care for her, and she is focused on her newborn baby. Her situation has positively changed to the point that her guitar is no longer her only concern, and she can cope with damage to it, knowing that she herself will survive.
Driving
The act of driving is one of the central motifs of The People We Keep. After she leaves her hometown, April spends much of the next three years leading a nomadic life. Driving represents April’s hesitation to settle down and stay in one place. April’s belief that “[d]riving will fix things” is really a belief that she can escape her intense anxiety about staying in one place and establishing meaningful and long-lasting relationships with people (323).
Driving does allow April to escape several difficult situations, including her life in Little River. Her car also becomes her home at times. There is an irony to this, as April grew up in a motorhome with no motor—a symbol of both impermanence (it is not a real house) and stagnation (it cannot go anywhere). April wants to escape this but simply ends up in another vehicle, dealing with many of the same emotional problems. Nevertheless, the car is her lifeline and gives her a way to live and perform anywhere.
At times, the need to drive weighs on April, as the constant movement makes it difficult for her to build a support system. Driving is lonely for April, and she does not always have a clear destination or end goal, which feeds her anxieties and insecurities. Her break-up with Justin is an example: “I drive. I cry. There’s no end in sight. No gigs to get to in time. No one waiting for me. Nobody missing me. Nothing. I could disappear completely and no one would even notice” (243). April swings between needing to be on the move and craving a home to return to, and driving represents this untethered situation. When she is driving, she is often leaving rather than arriving. It isolates her and she drifts, waiting for a situation that will allow her to park her car and have a place to return to.
Partners’ Shirts
April has a habit of taking a shirt from her partner when a romantic relationship ends. This action represents her desire to stay connected to these men and to remember the good times that they had. April fosters her connection to both Matty and Justin this way, and the shirts themselves come to represent April’s growth and development.
When April leaves Little River, she makes one final stop at Matty’s house and takes a souvenir rather than saying goodbye to him. She cares for him but has chosen herself and her future over their relationship. She needs something to remember him and chooses a sweater that “smells like he does when he’s just gotten out of the shower” (55). She takes the sweater to be surrounded by his scent and to take him with her on her journey. Similarly, when she and Justin split, she takes a shirt out of his bag to remember their time together.
This foreshadows that April and Justin will meet again, just as Matty and April did. However, it does not indicate that they will end up together. When April and Matty reunite, the sweater makes another appearance, but the way it is described shows that April has moved on. Recognizing that they aren’t meant to be, she decides to part ways with Matty’s sweater: “I leave my sweater in the motel. My navy blue cotton roll neck. Even though it’s sweater weather and I could use more layers, it feels good to let it go, leave it draped on the dingy flowered armchair in the corner of the room” (205). The sweater has become April’s—she describes it as hers and makes no mention of Matty’s scent—and now that any hope of a romantic reunion with Matty has been severed, so too has her connection with the sweater. She leaves Matty and the sweater behind and moves on into a new chapter of her life. The act represents her taking a step toward finding herself rather than relying on romance for a sense of belonging and support.
