66 pages • 2 hours read
Janet FitchWhite Oleander
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1999A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Artistic Expression
Artistic expression is one of the key vehicles of characterization for both Astrid and her mother and is also a symbol of The Capacity for Human Suffering. Astrid is a visual artist who draws, paints, and sculpts the world around her; Ingrid is a poet, writing about the world in a semi-riddled way. Astrid sees this as something that distinguishes her from her mother. She attempts to paint the world honestly, precisely as it is. Thanks to her sociopathic tendencies, Ingrid twists the world into her own image, attempting to manipulate it to suit her own needs. Astrid’s observations are detailed and vivid, and she reflects this in her art: “This was an artist’s stare, attentive to detail, taking in the truth without preconceptions” (299). She pays close attention to sounds, smells, the arrangements of flowers and the way that clothing falls on the human body. She attempts to indicate her feelings and experiences through her art as well, such as when she depicts herself as if she were a squirrel, eating food out of a garbage can, or when she sees Carolee leaving Starr, “the way her broad-shouldered body threw a shadow on the moonpale dust. How brave she looked just then” (103). In art class, Astrid paints a portrait of all the women she has known and their impact on her. She expands on this in the novel’s conclusion when she constructs diorama-like suitcases for each family she stayed with during her years in foster care.
In one sense, Astrid and Ingrid agree: they both view art as something they must do. Astrid thrives off her art; it is how she expresses herself in a chaotic and abusive world: “The artist is the phoenix who burns to emerge” (366). Ingrid also relies heavily on her art, writing poems and continuing to give herself purpose while in prison. Ingrid also uses her poems to manipulate Astrid and sees art as a calling of all great minds:
If evil means to be self-motivated, to be the center of one’s own universe, to live on one’s own terms, then every artist, every thinker, every original mind, is evil. Because we dare to look through our own eyes rather than mouth cliches lent us from the so-called Fathers. To dare to see is to steal the fire from the Gods. This is mankind’s destiny, the engine which fuels us as a race. Three cheers for Eve (74).
Oleanders and Other Flora
Oleanders and other flora are key symbols in the novel, representing The Capacity for Human Suffering, fertility and the dawn of womanhood, and the passion and chaos that often accompanies romantic love affairs. In the novel’s exposition, Ingrid places white oleanders on her table to symbolize “heaven, man, and earth” (6). As Astrid points out many times, the oleanders can withstand the dry, hot weather of the Santa Anas, where most other plants cannot. The oleander’s ability to endure represents Astrid and her mother: “Oleanders could live through anything, they could stand heat, drought, neglect, and put out thousands of waxy blooms. So what did they need poison for?” (413). Astrid compares her mother to the oleander, questioning why a woman so strong needs to be poisonous at all. Not only is Ingrid a poisonous person, but she also uses the flowers to poison Barry after their love affair goes sour. Other flowers are described in the novel, including the moonflower jewelry box that Ray crafts for Astrid, symbolizing her entrance into womanhood, the comparison of Claire to a Pristine flower (“She reminded me of a certain kind of rose she grew in the garden, called Pristine. It was white with a trace of pink around the outside, and when you picked it, the petals all fell off” (213)), and the perfume that Olivia gifts Astrid which reminds her of a young Victorian girl in a fairy tale. Astrid’s observations of flowers are also characteristic of her artistic inclination and her desire to showcase the world exactly as it is.
Weather
Weather is an important motif in White Oleander, illustrating the mood and setting or connecting the past and present. The novel begins with a description of the Santa Anas winds and their effects on the City of Los Angeles, as well as the people who live there:
A red moon rose over downtown, red from the fires burning to the north and out in Malibu. It was the season of fire, and we were trapped in the heart of the burning landscape. Ashes floated in the pool. We sat on the roof in the burnt wind. […] My mother just stood in the center of the room, gleaming, like a grassfire (31-34).
Ingrid foreshadows the murder of Barry when she says, “Lovers who kill each other now will blame it on the wind” (3). Astrid connects back to this time of year later when she notes, “I felt like my mother in oleander time” (168), and again at the novel’s conclusion, when she longs for the Santa Anas once more, associating it with her mother: “I wanted to hear what she was saying. I wanted to smell that burnt midnight again, I wanted to feel that wind” (446). Astrid also lays a baseline for her narrative by telling it around the changing of the seasons, often introducing chapters and passages with a description of the season and its effect. Chapter 7 begins in November, when Astrid has just turned 14, and ends with the spring as she comes into the bloom of womanhood. Part of Astrid’s character is her ability to observe the world around her with keen detail, and the weather is no exception.
