The Exiles

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue and Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-8

Chapters 9-16

Chapters 17-19

Chapters 20-24

Chapters 25-28

Chapters 29-35

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Cecil’s Handkerchief and the Ruby Ring

Evangeline first muses about “a ruby gemstone ring [that] glowed in the sunlight, staining the white handkerchief it lay on a deep red” (12). The ring, a sign of love from Cecil, becomes the catalyst for her demise. Symbolically, yes—the ring’s heirloom status stains Cecil’s handkerchief, one that Evangeline keeps with her the rest of her life as a reminder of what might have been. Without the ring casting a dispersion on her character, Evangeline’s story would have ended differently. However, the ring, a symbol of Cecil’s wealth and privilege, damns her to a life of servitude and eventually to her death. Twenty-five years later, it is the handkerchief that brings Ruby back to London to find her father, and yet again, he offers the ruby ring. Her denial of it symbolizes her mother’s voice, long dead.

The handkerchief represents the hope that Evangeline would carry with her for the rest of her life. She often touches and caresses it when thinking of Cecil and hoping he will “act honorably and step forward” (47) to save her from her sentence—but of course, he never does. In her darkest moments, Evangeline is always stroking the handkerchief—most noticeably upon feeling her baby kick for the first time and on her way to board the Medea. It is an “absentminded gesture that had become a habit” (70) to her, but the handkerchief always offers her some type of hope and comfort—a symbolic stand-in for Cecil himself, who never shows his face again. It is only once Evangeline recognizes her true strength—that she does not want to believe the socially accepted idea of women’s inferiority—that the handkerchief loses its power over her, as does the memory of Cecil.

After Evangeline’s death, Hazel looks at the handkerchief and considers the ruby ring that it once held—“the ring that became the catalyst for [Evangeline’s] journey” (209) and her death. Her decision to name Evangeline’s daughter “Ruby” redeems the meaning of the ring. Though the ring led to Evangeline’s condemnation and imprisonment, the ring also led to her pregnancy and a daughter that would go on to complete her mother’s intentions. Like the original ruby ring’s worth to Evangeline, Ruby herself is a priceless gift for Hazel, even if it comes at a price.

Tree Rings and Shell Necklaces

Two recurring motifs in the story are the tales of tree rings and shell necklaces, both symbolizing all the people who shape an individual’s life. These tales unite Mathinna, Hazel, Evangeline, and Ruby and cement Ruby’s definition of who she is.

For Mathinna, as an orphan alone in a strange new world, the shell necklaces represent a spiritual connection to her people and remind her that she is not alone. Although she never fits in with the “civilized” world, the necklaces are her lone connection back to the family and heritage that she has lost. Those three shell necklaces made by Mathinna’s mother represent the people who have shaped her into the person she will become: “Every person you’ve ever cared about, and every place you’ve ever loved, is in one of these shells” (81). When Lady Jane takes the necklaces from her as yet another conquest, it symbolizes the full and complete seizure of Mathinna’s identity—and the last remaining connection she has to her homeland and culture. Mathinna’s final act in the novel—giving one of the necklaces to Ruby—passes on a small part of a now-dead Palawa heritage. Therefore, through this simple act, Mathinna’s story and impact live on through Ruby.

Evangeline first introduces the story of the tree rings when thinking of her father, who explained to her that each tree ring represented a year and fluctuated in size and width depending on the weather—but “all of them fused together to give the tree its solid core” (54), much like people influence a person’s life in the end. At the end of her life, Evangeline uses the tree rings to console Olive after she loses her baby. Fittingly, it is Evangeline who soon becomes a tree ring in the lives of the others. After her death, Hazel reminisces on Evangeline’s words—that the “people we love live on inside us” (210)—as she decides to name Evangeline’s daughter “Ruby”; a priceless reminder for the girl of all the tree rings that made her who she is. Hazel also shares this story with Mathinna, who combines it with her own story of the shell necklaces to create a full and complete meaning of the impact many people can have on one individual. Ruby, by the end of the novel, is the culmination of the love of many different people—therefore, she becomes the physical embodiment of both the tree rings and the shell necklaces.

Medea

In Greek mythology, Medea is a goddess who is banished from Corinth through no fault of her own—rather, she is banished because her husband no longer wanted her. Similarly, the Medea holds those women who are banished at the hands of more powerful men.

The ship is a microcosm of British society. Though it serves only as a transport, the full status quo of the English social hierarchy is present on board. Women are still subjugated, and men are still superior. Rapes are common on board because women have no rights over their own bodies. While in Greek mythology, Medea murders her own two sons as retaliation against her exile, the women on board the Medea do not go to such extremes. Instead, they symbolically “murder” the main man who tries to ruin their lives—Buck. In attacking him for the attempted rape of Hazel, Evangeline takes control of the power struggle—Hazel does the same when accusing him of Evangeline’s murder.

In addition, the Medea is a former slaving ship, as Olive tells Evangeline before they depart London. The goal of sending them to Australia is not to rehabilitate them but to take them away from England proper. “Breeding convicts” is not a far cry from “owning human beings” (61), and therefore, the Medea’s newly-repurposed plan furthers the British control over people and their bodies. The convicts are repurposed slaves, just like the ship itself. Once they reach Australia, the women are hired out as free labor or forced into hard labor at the prison, labor that always included completing menial and mundane tasks for the shipyard, such as picking the tar out of the ropes used on board ship. All of their work either served England or the wealthy settlers of Australia who came there as free people.