The Comfort of Pamphlets and Starfish

In her 2008 novel, Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout, a social worker, discusses the sorrows and comfort that residents of Crosby, Maine, encounter. Before reading the novel, I had always believed that people find comfort in people. Perhaps I thought that comfort requires words or an acknowledgement that the other person lives. However, after reading Olive Kitteridge, I now recognize that people seek comfort in objects and memories and that such comfort proves fragile. For example, following the death of her husband, Marlene Bonney sobs to Olive about a basket with trip pamphlets that she and her husband had put together and mourns how they “made believe we’d [Marlene and her husband] go places together” while he was ill (179). Strout highlights the denotation of “made believe” to emphasize that Marlene seeks comfort in an illusion. Furthermore, by employing a mournful tone, the novelist stresses Marlene’s pain in seeking relief from her husband’s illness in an object, and further accentuates the fragility of the woman’s comfort. Similarly, Anita Harwood lives with the pain of her father’s death and seeks comfort in a starfish. When redecorating a room, Anita sends her daughters to collect starfish to attach to curtains. Her daughter, Julie, describes to her younger sister that their mother’s father “used to bring her starfish” (184). By highlighting the emotional association Anita has to starfish, Strout implies that the woman seeks comfort in the starfish as they preserve her father’s memory. Furthermore, Anita’s attempt to involve her daughters in her personal comfort implies that she wishes her children to better understand her, and through her memories with the starfish, acknowledge why her father’s loss pains her. However, when the starfish begin to smell in the living room, Anita throws them back into the ocean, releasing “a little scream” when she throws the last one (185). Through the desperate diction of “scream”, Strout creates a painful tone and implies that the impermanent nature of Anita’s object of comfort causes her even greater anguish. Therefore, Strout emphasizes that the memories and meaning that individuals attach to objects in which they seek comfort proves painful due to an object’s fragility. Overall, I have realized the danger in storing memories and seeking comfort in a single object as although it does not live, when the object must go, I may mourn the fragility of my comfort. 

Red Hair and a Little Burst

Last year, when studying at Johns Hopkins, I asked the security guard in the library-a woman in her sixties with dark brown hair-for directions. She smiled at me and she explained the way while still keeping watch over the entry gate to the library. I began to walk away, but she suddenly called me back over and told me how much she loved my hair and how I reminded her of her grandson. Taking her phone out of her pocket, she flipped open the cover to reveal a picture of a little boy with carrot-top red hair holding a large box adorned with bows and Christmas wrapping paper. I later walked from the library with a smile on my face for the kind security guard who had shared part of her life with me. Likewise, in her 2008 novel, Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout highlights the strain and trouble in relationships in the town of Crosby, Maine. The novelist specifically emphasizes her troubled yet extremely perceptive character, Olive Kitteridge, and Olive’s belief that while life depends on big relationships, such as marriages and between a parent and children, small affinities that she calls “little bursts” also prove important (68). I agree with this belief of Olive’s as I assert that these “little bursts” exist to balance and strengthen the larger relationships. For example, Olive defines a “little burst” as a “friendly clerk” or a “waitress…who knows how you like your coffee” (69). Strout directly characterizes small affinities as “friendly” and implies a certain intimacy, a full understanding of one small aspect of an individual’s life, through the image of the waitress. Therefore, by highlighting the positive connotation of “friendly”, Strout implies that these “little bursts” yield less hurt than larger relationships because small affinities do not require the deep understanding of each individual that larger affinities necessitate. “Little bursts” still prove important as they still require an understanding, and in turn, strengthen people in larger relationships’ ability to comprehend others. Furthermore, following her son’s wedding, Olive steals undergarments and marks the sweater of her know-it-all daughter-in-law, Suzanne, whom she hates, reflecting that the action gives Olive “a little burst” (74). Strout highlights that Olive receives a bit of intimacy with Suzanne through stealing as Olive may fully understand the self-doubt that the other woman receives from a marked sweater and missing undergarments. Therefore, the novelist implies that Olive’s “little burst” with her daughter-in-law limits the strain Suzanne’s self-assurance may have on Olive’s son and his wife.  Overall, I agree with Olive’s belief in the necessity of “little bursts” as they enable people to better understand each other, as no one can completely understand another person. I may never know more about the Hopkins security guard other than that her red-headed grandson’s eyes shine like Christmas lights as he opens presents. However, with that understanding, I may knowingly smile when my grandparents take out their cell phone to show others the picture of their red-headed grandchild, the one they know so well.