48 pages • 1 hour read
Jennifer HillierLittle Secrets
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A 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
Support Group
Marin Machado’s Support Group for Parents of Missing Children is symbolic of community. Marin joins the group in the months after Sebastian disappears in an attempt to find support through her grief and confusion. Unlike Marin’s therapy sessions, Marin’s support group meetings carry no “unspoken expectation that she’s there to get better” (19). Rather, the group brings together people who have “one terrible thing in common: they all have missing kids” (19). The group has no distinct leader and, therefore, no exact agenda. Instead, the group grants its members a safe space in which to freely discuss what happened to them and to express their complex emotions without judgment.
The support group also reminds Marin that she isn’t alone in her loss. Because Derek Machado has been silent and withdrawn since Sebastian’s kidnapping, Marin has no one with whom to process her experience. The group grants her this realm. Marin finds the group particularly helpful because “sometimes someone else’s pain is the only thing that makes yours better” (33). Therefore, the group equalizes its members. Marin finds common ground with the other parents, including Frances Payne, Lila Figueroa, and Simon Polniak. She not only listens to their stories but shares her own in a raw and unbridled manner. This communal setting subtly ushers Marin towards change, even when she’s unaware of the group’s influence on her psyche.
Shadow App
The Shadow app that Marin uses to spy on Derek and McKenzie Li is symbolic of obsession and anger. Marin downloads the application immediately after her private investigator, Vanessa Castro, informs her that Derek has been cheating on her with a younger woman for the past six months. The app is intended for parents who want “to read their kids’ texts in real time, without their knowing” (60). Marin repurposes the program to keep track of Derek and McKenzie’s communications. The app fuels her mounting desire for revenge against McKenzie. Instead of confronting her husband about his infidelity, Marin becomes reliant upon the app. The program grants her the illusion of control over her marital conflict while simultaneously augmenting her rage.
The app is also a narrative device used to create commentary on technology’s role in Conflict and Loyalty in Intimate Relationships. Its voyeuristic nature provides Marin access to Derek and McKenzie’s affair but precludes her from finding real healing and reconciliation. As with the references to social media throughout the novel, the app creates distance between the characters rather than bringing them together in an authentic way. Marin begins to realize the destructive nature of the program in Chapter 14 after reflecting on Lorna Palermo’s remarks on forgiveness. She suddenly understands that both Derek’s infidelity and her obsessive, angry response to it are in fact “the grief talking” (153). The app grants her no real agency and therefore only complicates her ability to repair her marriage. She does delete the app after these reflections but later downloads it again. This decision captures the addictive nature of the technology and illustrates the ways in which such programs fuel the basest of human impulses.
Orchid
Marin’s orchid is symbolic of relationships. Sebastian and Derek brought the flower home for her one day, an act that conveys their love for Marin. Marin’s tending to it falters in the weeks following Sebastian’s disappearance, and her inability to care for the plant is a manifestation of her grief. She can’t maintain her intimate relationships in light of her loss because she’s too overcome by despair. Derek tries to throw the plant away after all of its blooms fall off, but Marin refuses to let him. Derek thinks that they have to let go of the flower in the same way they have to let go of Sebastian. However, Marin is unwilling to give up hope and tries to reinvest in the plant’s care thereafter. In Chapter 21, the plant starts to come back to life. Its new vibrancy represents Marin’s newfound hopefulness about her marriage and her son’s return. As with the plant, she tells herself that with time, care, and attention, her familial relationships will be restored.
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By Jennifer Hillier
