Good Night, Irene

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Book Club Questions

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Symbols & Motifs

The Rapid City

Content Warning: The source material and this section of the guide discuss war-related trauma.

The Rapid City is a motif that represents the comfort and stability of home amidst the chaos and brutality of war. The truck signifies home for Irene and Dorothy because it stays constant amid the changing landscapes around them. However, the truck represents home for the soldiers as well, since the name evokes images of America, their homeland. Rapid City is a city in South Dakota, and each Clubmobile carries the name of a different city, town, or landmark in America. Irene learns that this “was Eisenhower’s plan—continuing his belief that these rolling bits of the homeland would bring comfort to the boys” (32). The organization of the Clubmobile Service itself stems from the idea that the presence of beautiful women serving food would stave off the troops’ homesickness and fear. Yet the truck becomes even more than a representation of home for the soldiers, for it serves as a physical home and a source of shelter and safety for Irene and Dorothy throughout their travels. For this reason, the truck’s explosion at the end of the novel connects to Irene’s trauma; she feels that her entire world has fallen apart, and any sense of safety and comfort is now gone. For Dorothy, memories of the Rapid City represent her perceived betrayal of Irene, and it is not until the two women finally reunite that they find true comfort and stability in each other’s company once again.

Irene’s Footlocker

Irene’s footlocker is a motif that represents the past and the trauma that comes from memories. The footlocker travels with Irene on the Rapid City throughout the entire novel, but Irene does not stop to think about it until it sits in her living room at the Woodward farm, 50 years later. The footlocker rests in front of the couch with a blanket covering it, a blanket that Irene “embroidered with memories of places she’d been” (376). Although an army truck delivered the footlocker to her in 1946, Irene never opens it because it reminds her of the war, Dorothy, and her trauma. She believes that it is “better the trunk stay closed” (376), even though she remembers everything that it holds. She knows that the berets she bought with Dorothy are inside, as well as the “photographs, loose and alive. These frightened her. She did not know what they might unleash in her house” (376). Irene fears that the pictures inside the footlocker will unlock a new rush of memories and nightmares that she does not want to experience. She knows the pictures of the concentration camp are among them, and she does not want to relive these memories. She feels superstitious because she feels “sure if she ever opened this box, the spirits trapped there would swarm out and fill the house” (376). Yet despite her resistance to opening the footlocker, Irene cannot get rid of it, but instead lets it sit in her house and haunt her with the threat of traumatic memories.

Red and Black Berets

Luis Alberto Urrea uses the red and black berets that Dorothy and Irene buy in Cannes as a motif to represent the hope of a future apart from war. Amid the horrors of World War II, Irene and Dorothy’s trip to Cannes stands as a precious memory in their minds. Their time in Cannes drives them forward toward the hope of a future beyond the war. When they arrive in Cannes, Irene tells Dorothy that she needs a beret, and Dorothy agrees because she wants “a red one. Like Colette’s” (222). In Dorothy’s mind, the red beret that she saw Colette wearing represents strength and individuality, and it also emphasizes the unspoken truth that Dorothy longs to emulate Colette’s actions. However, Irene does not remember Colette, and this causes a rift in Dorothy and Irene’s relationship because “Colette had apparently changed nothing for Irene, and Dorothy didn’t want to explain that Colette had changed everything for her” (222).

Dorothy and Irene’s decision to buy berets in a hat shop also signifies a level of normalcy that they have never experienced in each other’s company, for their friendship began amidst the chaos of war, and they have not yet spent time with each other in a setting of peace. Fifty years later, Irene cannot bear to take the berets out of her footlocker because they remind her of a time when she and Dorothy were happy together. Yet, when Dorothy and Irene reunite at the end, Irene tells Dorothy, “You’ll never guess what I’ve got in my footlocker, Dottie. Our berets!” (399). Irene’s announcement makes them laugh like young girls again because they are finally experiencing the future they so desperately hoped for while they were in Cannes.