61 pages • 2 hours read
About Grace
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Symbols & Motifs
Snow Crystals and Insects
Winkler’s mother fosters in him a fascination with snow from a young age when she shares stories of her childhood in Finland and a book on snow crystals by W. A. Bentley. Winkler’s first true love is his mother, and their relationship has a profound impact on his life. As a result, snow crystals became his obsession and then a basis for his studies and career in meteorology. Later, Winkler meets Naaliyah and shares with her a fascination with insects that for her develops into the same sort of obsession, guiding her education and career choices. Likewise, Winkler’s grandson, Christopher, develops a fascination with insects, providing Winkler with a connection to the young boy that helps their relationship grow.
Snow crystals and insects are more than just objects to Winkler. They symbolize human connection for him, a way that he connected to his mother, a way that he reaches out to both Herman and Grace later in the novel, and his mode of building a relationship with young Naaliyah and then Christopher. Additionally, snow crystals and insects provide a way through which Winkler understands the world around him and his place in it. While he struggles with his inability to find Grace, during his stay at Camp Nowhere he uses the pastime of photographing snow crystals not only to fill his days but also to give him a purpose given that Grace had once been his sole purpose. As Winkler endures the freezing weather and watches Naaliyah study her insects, he sees within the snow crystals and insect cycles that he relates to his own life and the repetition he recognizes within it. The snow crystals and insects begin to take on the symbolism of hope, understanding, and potential forgiveness.
Dreams
Winkler has dreams that sometimes come true. Not all his dreams are visions of the future, and he sometimes has difficulty understanding the difference between normal dreams and visions. However, when a dream predicts his infant daughter’s death, he chooses not to ignore it. This dream alters his very existence, causing him to abandon his wife and daughter, sail thousands of miles from home, and live a quiet life on a distant island.
His dreams come and go throughout the novel, sometimes bringing him peace and other times altering his perception of the world around him, as his dreams of Grace do. Early in the novel, these dreams symbolize the supportive relationship Winkler shares with his mother despite the tragedy (a man being hit by a bus) that causes her to believe in his vision-like dreams. When Winkler dreams of Sandy in the grocery store, the dream takes on a symbolic representation of Winkler’s loneliness and desire for companionship. However, this changes with his dream of Grace’s death, which fills him with fear and leads him to abandon his family. From this point forward, the dreams symbolize Winkler’s mental state, only returning when he’s resigned to his life, moving him to change to his sense of routine. Overall, dreams prove both negative and positive for Winkler, reflecting the predictable but occasionally disruptive cycle of water that fascinates him.
Christopher’s Drawings
Winkler’s first introduction to his grandson, Christopher, are the drawings on Herman’s refrigerator alongside a photograph of Christopher. As Winkler begins to spend time with Christopher, he observes the child drawing more pictures but notes that he never appears in any of them. Not until Thanksgiving Day, after months of interaction, does Christopher finally include Winkler in one of his drawings.
These drawings represent for Winkler everything he has missed out on in not being part of Grace’s life and therefore not a part of Christopher’s life. He counts these drawings in part of his accounting of all Herman has, as compared to what he has. Although Herman never remarried after Sandy left him and doesn’t have children of his own, he became a surrogate father to Grace and surrogate grandfather to Christopher. Winkler envies Herman’s place in their lives, not Herman’s house and job. Therefore, these drawings symbolize Winkler’s sense of being excluded from the lives of his daughter and grandson. When Christopher finally draws Winkler in one of his pictures, it proves to Winkler that he’s now part of their lives.
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