Wish You Were Here

Diana adapting to her new life is at the forefront of the plot in these chapters. Though there is still some uneasiness, she is now settling in, forging relationships and a community, and finding a new rhythm to her days. Even as things are beginning to fall into place for Diana on Isabela, New York continues to be caught in a struggle with the pandemic, as is evidenced by Finn’s emails. Diana and Finn’s relationship also seems to be displaying some tension, even as Diana grows closer to Gabriel, as her stay on the island is extended by the continuing lockdown.

The latter, especially, points to the recurring theme of evolution, and how it may be linked to isolation. Diana and Finn’s relationship seems to be changing, and it is Diana’s isolation on the island, in tandem with Finn’s in New York, that is catalyzing this. Besides the fact that their respective isolations were caused by Finn asking Diana to leave—something that becomes a point of contention between them—it is also the circumstances themselves: The isolation is causing Diana to change and adapt as a person, and it is the reflections and responses caused by this that are causing Diana to reevaluate her relationship with Finn.

Some degree of foreshadowing regarding the changing nature of Diana and Finn’s relationship is also delivered through Gabriel. It is with Gabriel that Diana continues to have conversations about adaptability and evolution. He tells Diana that, to move forward, something must be given up. She draws closer to Gabriel even as she feels increasingly distant from Finn.

We see Diana’s growth as a character in these chapters—or rather, it is an unveiling of parts of her nature that already existed but are being called upon much more in her new life. In the way she bonds with Beatriz as the teenager shares her anguish about her absent mother and unrequited love, as well as her response to the little boy being bullied at the market, reveal a warm and caring side of Diana. The parallel recounting of how Diana secured the deal to auction Kitomi’s painting likewise shows her as someone who can understand and connect with people honestly and deeply. Nevertheless, while the earlier chapters focused on Diana’s need to plan and control things, these chapters display her ability to adapt and settle, and the latter is helped along greatly by Diana’s innate ability to empathize.

Another innate ability that helps Diana in these new circumstances is her artistic talent, as art continues to be a recurring element in these chapters. It is Diana’s skill at portraiture that becomes something of value that she can trade for goods at the market, even as she is running out of cash. Art is helping Diana fend for herself in some meaningful way on Isabela, in terms of relationships as well as resources, and she begins to feel at home on the island.

Art also becomes a talking point in the detailed recounting of the history of Kitomi’s painting and the artist who created it. It also brings up the topic of love and attraction and a person’s lack of control over these feelings. From the very artist who created it right down to the widowed Kitomi, the painting is said to have been owned by lovers whose stories ended in tragedy; the point to note, though, is that despite the tragedy, love continued to persist. Kitomi, for instance, continues to love and mourn her husband who has been dead for 35 years. Other instances of love and attraction that appear in these chapters, which highlight how one cannot control to whom one is attracted, include Diana and Gabriel’s growing closeness, and Beatriz’s history with Ana Maria.

Along with art and the secret about Ana Maria, another thing that Beatriz and Diana talk about is their respective absent mothers. These chapters explore parent-child relationships—particularly those between mother and daughter. Even as Beatriz and Diana share their respective pain at their mothers not having been there for them when they were needed, Diana begins to develop a quasi-maternal relationship with the girl, protecting her from emotional and physical pain by helping her make sense of the confusing things in her life, as well as stopping her from jumping to her death. The absences of Beatriz’s and Diana’s mothers are portrayed as choices made by these respective women. In an ironic reversal, when Diana’s mother falls ill with Covid, Diana is now absent from her mother’s side. However, this absence is a forced one.

The emails and postcard notes continue throughout these chapters—Picoult uses them as ways to showcase the contrasting circumstances that Diana and Finn are facing. These repeated reminders of the different lives Diana and Finn are currently living serve as indicators for the kind of change and progression that each character must be going through, and how their paths are increasingly diverging. That Finn can contact Diana but she can’t reliably contact him mirrors the actual events that we’ll learn of late in the novel: Diana is in a hallucinogenic state in a hospital and isn’t able to communicate with Finn, while he likely visits and communicates with her.