Blackbird House

For more than 200 years, the inhabitants of Blackbird House experience trauma and sorrow as well as love and new beginnings. One thread uniting the narrative is that love is a powerful motivator in times of difficulty but can cause people to make questionable decisions.

Love provides inspiration through suffering. Coral Hadley first demonstrates this when she refuses to accept that her family is dead and toils tirelessly to cultivate a farm that John would have wanted. The intense physical labor that Coral undertakes is a sign of love and a coping mechanism for her loss. Likewise, love propels Vincent to make the long journey home, although he doesn’t realize it until he reaches his destination. Seeing the farm, “[h]e thought about how love could move you in ways you wouldn’t have imagined, one foot in front of the other, even when you thought you had nothing left inside” (21). Vincent sees the connection between his mother and himself: Love led them both through pain. A similar connection between parent and child surfaces in “The Token.” Distraught over the death of her husband, Ruth is paralyzed. However, when Garnet approaches her with the means to leave, Ruth agrees. Without Garnet’s prompting, without her love, Ruth would have remained at the pond’s edge. The moment she puts her hands in her daughter’s, Ruth knows she can move on. Along with Coral and Vincent, Ruth shows how love can guide people through dark times.

Love can also be the impetus for acts of sacrifice. In “The Witch of Truro,” Lysander and Ruth never declare their tenderness for each other, but his actions make his feelings clear. Learning that Ruth longs for a red pear tree, Lysander sets out on a quest to find one. When he returns, “[w]hat he didn’t say was that he would have gone farther still if it had been necessary […] He would have kept on even if snow had begun to fall” (37). Lysander knows that he would have gone to the greatest lengths necessary to please Ruth. His actions are motivated by love, as are those of John Hadley: “[His] last act was to roll the molasses barrel to Vincent so he could float with it” (17). Amid the storm, a father sacrifices his own life to give his son a chance to survive. Instead of trying to share the barrel as a flotation device, he surrenders it to Vincent, demonstrating his love.

Despite the altruistic inspiration that love can provide, however, it can compel people to make questionable decisions, as it does Violet West. As a young woman, Violet becomes desperate for Ewan Perkins’ affection, believing that she’s in love with him. After presenting Ewan with singed bluefish scales, she watches him intently: “I thought about his hands on me. I thought I could make a lie into the truth” (85). Her brain first registers her desire for him and then immediately rationalizes what she has done. Violet believes that she can turn fiction into reality simply because she loves Ewan. Many years later, Violet finds herself in a battle with her grandson’s new wife, a tug-of-war for Lion Jr.’s affection. The elderly woman attempts to make Dorey miserable enough to leave Lion: “[She] did all this because she loved Lion in a way she loved no one else in the world, save for Lion’s dead father, whom she had loved just as fiercely” (118). Fueled by adoration for her grandson, Violet makes questionable decisions to drive his wife away. Her love for him is so “fierce” that she can’t see until it’s almost too late that she can share Lion with Dorey.

As the residents of Blackbird House demonstrate, love’s blinding power can be both beneficial and destructive: It can lead the way through suffering, drive someone to make sacrifices, or compel a person to make rash decisions. Regardless of the circumstance, love proves a powerful motivator.