Several themes run through the stories in Olive Kitteridge. In fact,
in addition to the presence of Olive in each story, and the setting, it is the
recurrent themes that unify the stories into a coherent whole. The first theme,
appropriately enough, is a resonance or echoing among people. When one
character is going through something and feels desperately alone as a result of
how hard it is, another character across town, or perhaps half a dozen of them,
experiences the same event or emotion. This happens on the level of plot and
character interaction, as when Olive and Kevin both have a parent who committed
suicide in "Incoming Tide." It also happens, however, on less literal levels.
In "Starving," young Nina White literally starves herself to death through her
anorexia, but Harmon, whose observations of Nina start the story in motion, is
hungry for love. So too are his girlfriend Daisy Foster and Olive, who wanders
into the story almost by chance.
One of the reasons characters resonate with one another so much is that they
are all facing the same emotional challenge: how hard it is to love, and yet
how important it is. In these stories, author Elizabeth Strout explores every
sort of love one can imagine—and every sort of difficulty one can face when
loving. There is casual sex that grows into love (between Harmon and Daisy
Foster, in "Starving"). There are illicit affairs, like the one Bob Houlton has
in "Winter Concert" or Angie O'Meara has in "Piano Player." There are failed
and successful marriages aplenty, boyfriends and girlfriends, and all
arrangements in between, including actual love between parents and children,
attempts at love between parents and stepchildren, and surrogate love between
unrelated members of different generations. The characters face challenges
ranging from death (as when Denise Thibodeau's husband is shot) to the
emotional residue of suicide (for both main characters in "Incoming Tide") and
on to the lingering weight of having a husband institutionalized due to a
stroke (as Olive must deal with throughout several of the book's later
stories). Love is essential for these stories, but it never flows easily.
Another reason the characters so often resonate is that ultimately the world of
Olive Kitteridge is a world of symbolic serendipity. That is to say,
throughout the collection, people encounter things, events, and other people at
just the right time to spark realizations, emotional exposure, and growth. For
example, Olive Kitteridge just happens to drop by Daisy Foster's when asking
for money, and just happens to do so at a time when Harmon is there, and at a
time when Nina, an anorexic, is trying to eat a doughnut. This gives Olive a
chance to share comments on how everyone is starving emotionally, which in turn
leads Harmon to realize his desire for Daisy is love, not just lust. Seasons,
special events, chance encounters, and even the tides align to force characters
to grow in Olive Kitteridge, creating a world in which everything is
meaningful and where drama happens as much internally as externally.
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