45 pages • 1 hour read
Deborah WilesLove, Ruby Lavender
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Sourness and Sweetness of Life
The lemon drop motif introduces this theme and suggests that life is made up of both sad or painful moments and sweet or wonderful ones; it also highlights how individuals are a combination of the difficult and the lovely. Ruby’s Grandpa Garnet loved the candies and told Ruby that “most people were like lemon drops, sour and sweet together,” though “She couldn’t see it” for a long time (18). Learning this lesson is one of the key factors to Ruby’s development of empathy—including extending it to both her great aunt and her grandmother—and moving beyond blaming others for her pain and accepting it as part of life.
Early on, Ruby judges others harshly and quickly, never seeking to understand their behavior or imagine their feelings. She often responds in a self-pitying way when unpleasant things happen. When Eula gives Ruby a lemon drop for helping Mattie, Ruby complains that Mattie doesn’t appreciate her help. Despite Eula’s claim that Mattie has “a lot on her mind” after Garnet’s death, Ruby “choke[s]” on her lemon drop, as though its initial sourness overwhelms her (17). Ruby only acknowledges Mattie’s “sour” side and makes no effort to see her “sweet.” However, after the chicks’ death, “Miss Mattie’s no-nonsense way was a comfort” to Ruby (129). Mattie reassures the girls and promises to attend a funeral for Ivy’s chicks. She relates compassionately to Ruby, acknowledging the pain caused by losing someone she loves. When Mattie “smiled a smile that softened her whole face” (133), Ruby cannot help but smile back. These interactions demonstrate the accuracy of Garnet’s claim, proving to Ruby that people are a combination of the “sour” and the “sweet,” even if—like the candy—one’s exterior appears especially “sour.”
Though Ruby adores her grandmother, she lacks empathy for her desires and views Eula’s trip to Hawaii as a personal tragedy rather than a joyful occasion for the recent widow. When Evelyn reminds Ruby that this has been a “hard” year for Eula, Ruby says, “But it’s been a whole year” (21), remarking that she thinks a year is enough time to finish grieving the death of one’s beloved spouse. Then, when Eula tells Ruby she’s going to Hawaii to prove to herself “how [life] does go on,” Ruby is hurt and upset, feeling like “the earth [will] open up to swallow her” (30-31). Ruby will miss her best friend and fears being alone with Mattie and Melba. After a year of “sour,” Eula longs for some “sweet”—and an exciting trip to meet a new grandbaby is just the ticket. Ruby, however, cannot recognize anyone’s “sour” but her own; rather than rejoice in her grandmother’s opportunity, Ruby fears Eula won’t return and that the new grandbaby will replace Eula’s affections toward her. Life, however, is made of the “sour” (deaths, departures, losses, and accidents) and the “sweet” (homecomings, new friends, babies, flowers, and chickens). When Ruby learns to accept both, she can develop the empathy she needs to be a good friend and family member and cultivate an accurate understanding of life’s simultaneous joys and struggles.
The Persistent Progression of Time
Wiles introduces this theme through an expression used often by Eula and her daughter, Evelyn: “Life does go on” (21). It means that even when it seems like life can’t or won’t go on—such as after a tragedy like Garnet and Mr. Latham’s death—life continues, time passes, and new opportunities emerge. Mattie alludes to this same idea after the chicks’ death when she says, “There’s always another day” (132). Even when something catastrophic occurs, the sun will set and rise again, bringing a new day. This new day is symbolic of the opportunity life presents to keep going. For those who survive tragedies, it’s not about moving on or forgetting but, rather, moving forward, as time does: painting the Pink Palace, taking a trip, and having new experiences. Thus, time continues, and the living must too.
This is precisely why Eula resolves to visit her son and daughter-in-law in Hawaii. She promises Ruby she’ll be back “when [she’s] had time to soak up Johnson and Annette and the baby. When [she’s] talked and talked about [Ruby’s] grandpa. When [she’s] lived away from reminders of Garnet for a while. When [she’s] made some new memories” (34). Living in Halleluia, amidst the same places and people she shared with Garnet, Eula is constantly reminded of her grief and of what she lost. Now, she longs to focus on what she still has and what she might experience for the first time. The trip offers her a chance to experience a place that is not filled with her memories of Garnet and her sense of loss. She says she will not forget her late husband, as she’ll “talk and talk” about him while she’s there. However, Eula acknowledges that her life does go on and she must find ways to live it.
After the death of the chicks, Ruby ponders the meaning of her grandmother’s saying, reasoning that life does not go on for the chicks who died; it is Dove who senses that the expression is symbolic and that it “means something else” (135). Dove helps Ruby to understand that the saying isn’t only literal, as life often does not go on for someone. However, for the rest of the community, time does not stop moving and its progress encourages the family members and friends of the deceased to persist as well—no matter how shell-shocked they are after experiencing a significant, life-altering loss.
The Varied Responses to Grief and Loss
To develop empathy for others, Ruby must learn that people have wildly different responses to loss. Early on, Evelyn explains to her that “Some losses leave great big holes,” though Ruby thinks a year is more than enough time for Eula to heal (22). When Eula explains that Melba “wants [Ruby] to feel as bad as she does” and encourages Ruby to consider “what it must be like for [Melba] and her family,” Ruby cannot—or will not—allow herself to see Melba’s perspective (15). When Eula says, sympathetically, “‘Poor old Melba’ [….]. Ruby shot up from the steps” in protest, exclaiming, “Poor old me!” (16). Melba, who doesn’t act sad or depressed, doesn’t strike Ruby as someone who deserves sympathy, whereas Ruby, who feels that she is targeted by Melba, does. Just like Ruby is not ready to accept that people are made up of both the sweet and the sour, she is not prepared to acknowledge that grief can cause people to be angry, lash out, withdraw from society, become kinder and softer, or any number of other possibilities.
Ruby’s changing perspective on her great aunt Mattie helps her to understand that one’s outward behavior isn’t always the best indicator of one’s private feelings and that a variety of attitudes can conceal grief. Though Ruby has long thought of Mattie as rather surly, when the chicks die, her aunt becomes gentle and soothing. She says, “When you lose someone you love, it hurts, doesn’t it?” (131). Mattie has experienced loss, and her kindness to Ruby in these moments demonstrates how deeply she felt that loss, prompting Ruby to see a new side of her. Mattie, who is often irritable and tetchy, tells Ruby, “Oh, honey, we’ve all dampened a pillow in our day,” admitting that she, too, has cried over her losses, though one might never think it to look at her (131-132). Ruby is surprised by the revelation of Mattie’s deep emotional capacity, especially regarding loss, and it broadens Ruby’s ideas about how grief can look, paving the way for Ruby to relate, similarly, to her nemesis, Melba.
Ruby’s experience with Mattie eventually helps her to empathize with Melba. Hearing Melba’s stories from Dove lets Ruby understand that Melba still grieves for her father, just as Mattie does for Garnet. Though Ruby resists developing an empathic response to Melba’s pain—pain which has led her to blame and be angry at Ruby—once she hears the truth of Melba’s feelings from Melba herself, it takes little time for Ruby to accept Melba’s apology and help her.
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