51 pages • 1 hour read
Abby JimenezPart of Your World
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A 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
Magic in Wakan
Part of Your World often incorporates magical realism into the plot, insisting that the town of Wakan in particular is a magical place. The motif of magic in Wakan emphasizes what the town means to Alexis, Daniel, and their relationship while also showing the characters what they need most in life. When Daniel feels distraught over Alexis leaving Wakan, Popeye tells him, “The town! It’ll get ’er back! It picks who it wants” (82). Popeye’s suggestion that Wakan keeps those it needs and releases those it doesn’t forms the foundation of the town’s magic and underpins the elements of magical realism. When Alexis’s friends are cruel to Daniel and treat the town with disrespect, hundreds of acorns from the trees above the Grant House hail down on them, hard enough to cause bruises. When Alexis is trying to leave Daniel and Wakan for good, a tree branch falls in front of her car and Daniel refuses to touch it, believing it is a sign from the universe telling her to stay. At the end of the novel, when Daniel and Alexis’s relationship is flourishing, the trees around them begin to blossom and flowers fall like snow. In this moment, even the scientifically minded Alexis acknowledges that “the town gets what it needs” (317). Overall, the motif of the magic in Wakan underscores the entirety of Alexis and Daniel’s relationship for better or worse and guides them to the places they need to be.
The Grant House
The Grant House is a symbol of the Grant family’s role in Wakan and how deeply Daniel’s roots lie in the town. Built exactly 125 years before the beginning of the novel by Daniel’s ancestor, the Grant House has always been owned and lived in by the Grants. The Grant legacy, although rooted in the town of Wakan and the honorary mayorship more broadly, begins at the iconic Grant House; Daniel describes the many moments throughout its history when it has served as a place of shelter and gathering for the community. The deed now belongs to Daniel’s mother, Amber, who is intent on selling the property; Daniel runs it as a bed-and-breakfast, trying to earn enough money to dissuade her from selling it. Much like Wakan as a whole, Daniel knows the house and its history intimately, and this is important to Daniel’s identity: As he says of a piece of his woodworking, “I like working with things that have history. It gives it character. There’ll never be another one exactly like it” (129). Thinking of Daniel’s role in Wakan, Alexis knows, “He had to be here. And he had to be in that house” (221), summing up how much the Grant legacy and the Grant House both figuratively and literally depend upon Daniel—and he on them.
Royaume Northwestern Hospital
Royaume Northwestern Hospital is to the Montgomerys what the Grant House is to the Grants: a symbol for the endurance and importance of their family’s legacy. Like the Grant House, it has stood for exactly 125 years and a family member has worked there ever since its founding, with Alexis being the only person now upholding the family legacy. Royaume is a symbolic parallel to the Grant House but with contrasting significance: To Alexis, Royaume is not an idyllic place of safety. Alexis often uses language that compares Royaume to a prison and her stay there to “a life sentence” (33). At the beginning of the novel Alexis is applying to other hospitals in order to leave Royaume and her abusive ex-boyfriend, who also works there. However, her brother Derek’s decision to move to Cambodia leaves her under increased pressure to stay and uphold her family’s legacy. Though Derek tells her that the hospital will survive without her, Alexis is hesitant: “I couldn’t be the Montgomery who undid it. I couldn’t dismantle the franchise. It would literally go down in the history books” (33). Since before she was born, Alexis has known she was destined to work at Royaume, which for her functions as a symbol of The Influence of Legacy over her life. Its name suggests the Montgomerys’ obsession with their prestige and power; “royaume” means “kingdom” in French, whereas a “grant” is a gift.
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By Abby Jimenez
