51 pages • 1 hour read
The Great Alone
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Symbols & Motifs
Literature
Leni’s reading frames her experiences in Alaska and beyond. When she moves to Alaska, her father gives her The Call of the Wild to read. The vastness and danger of the Alaska she reads about reminds Leni of her father. On her way to Alaska, her trusty copy of The Fellowship of the Ring accompanies her. She identifies with Frodo and Bilbo going off on their adventure far from home. Love for Tolkien and other writers brings her and Matthew together as they bond over their favorite novels. Together they enjoy Robert Service poems about Alaska. The “Great Alone” that Hannah uses as the novel’s title comes from a Robert Service poem. As her and Matthew’s deepening relationship faces obstacles, Leni draws strength from romance novel heroines who are able to live happily ever after despite their struggles.
Leni’s experiences also reveal the limits of her reading. In living through the loss of Matthew’s mother, Leni reflects that real death is not abstract like it is in fiction, such as in The Outsiders, where death grants closure to narratives. The texts she reads also acquire different meanings. When she recites Robert Service poems to Matthew during his accident, it is to provide a lifeline for him and to soothe him. Later, when she reads Robert Service poems to her son, MJ, now outside Alaska, she reads them to transmit to her son a sense of his Alaskan heritage.
Letters
Although Leni and Matthew first meet and get to know each other in Kaneq, they soon separate when Matthew leaves for Fairbanks after his mother’s death. They stay connected to each other through letters of support. The letters become a way of maintaining a presence in each other’s lives, even if they don’t broach their feelings. Matthew mentions how, apart from his sister’s support, Leni’s letters helped him through the loss of his mother. For Leni, the act of writing itself is cathartic. She writes to Matthew as he recovers in the hospital, even though she knows he can’t read them. Although she doesn’t send the letters she writes for him after leaving Alaska, Leni still writes about losing her own mother. Leni’s letters to Matthew have a life beyond content alone. When Leni and Matthew reunite as adults, he tells her that he used her letters to learn how to read again. The letters are significant not just in terms of the interaction between them, but also as part of the support they can give to each other through hard times.
Mistakes
When the Allbrights move to Alaska, Large Marge offers a caveat to Cora: “Up here you can make one mistake. The second one will kill you” (29). This mantra emphasizes that the margin of error in Alaska is such that a second mistake will inevitably be lethal. This sentiment repeats later, when Thelma encourages Cora to save herself and Leni from Ernt: “In Alaska you can make one mistake. The second one will kill you” (53). The harshness of the terrain in Alaska, particularly during winter, can be perilous to even those who are experienced, as the narrative brings home with Geneva’s death. Although Geneva is extremely competent, she falls into a frozen river and to her death while helping the Allbrights settle in their land. Her death shocks the town of Kaneq. At Geneva’s funeral, Thelma notes that Geneva didn’t make mistakes on the ice, to which Large Marge responds that everyone makes mistakes. While Matthew lives after losing his mother, his second mistake comes during his fall going after Leni. It might not have killed him, but it forever changes the course of his and Leni’s lives. Ernt stands the most obvious example of a lethal second mistake, his first being his assault of Cora, which leads to Large Marge and Tom pressuring him to leave. His second mistake is his assault of Leni, which leads to his death.
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By Kristin Hannah
