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Chapter 29: Alvin Yark
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Shipping News, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love and Family
Redemption, Courage, and Happiness
Life and Death
Resilience and Survival
Modernity
Summary
Analysis
On a cold December night, icy with frost, Quoyle, Bunny, and Sunshine walk to the Sea Gull Inn to join Agnis for dinner. She has a big announcement: she’s expanded the clientele of her shop from just yachts to all boats and scored a big job helping to repair and refit the burned Rome. She’s taking Mrs. Bangs and Dawn with her to St. John’s to do the work, which she expects will take all winter. Then in the spring, they can all move back to the house together, unless Quoyle and the girls decide to go back to the states.
Agnis continues to reinvent herself as necessary—if there aren’t enough fancy yachts in Killick-Claw, she can always expand her business. Now, too, the book closes the loop on the burning cargo ship that failed to appear in the earlier chapter—it was taken to St. John’s instead. Importantly, Agnis’s departure also requires Quoyle to take on more responsibility—after all, she’s been by his side practically since Petal’s death.
Themes
Neither Bunny—who has found a forever friend in Dennis and Beety’s daughter—nor Quoyle want to leave Newfoundland. The girls prattle on about the letters they’re writing to Santa. Bunny wants cups like Mrs. Yark’s and Sunshine wants a boat on a string, and Bunny shows her father and her aunt a cat’s cradle Skipper Alfred taught her. It’s called “the sun clouded over.” She demonstrates it with a piece of string she found in the car. It has seven tidy knots along its length, which Bunny didn’t tie.
Agnis’s impending departure also offers the family a chance to reflect on their time in Newfoundland thus far, and it’s been an overwhelmingly positive experience. Still, the knotted string left by whoever is haunting Quoyle (presumably Nolan) provides an ominous reminder that not everything has been settled.
Themes
