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38. A Bridge at Last
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Bridge to Wiseman’s Cove, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love and Family
Coming of Age
Grief and Redemption
The Limits of Loyalty
Body Image
Summary
Analysis
The Missing Persons office makes Carl nervous. An officer named Sergeant Simmonds asks Carl questions about Kerry—what she looks like, what her habits and interests are. Carl has little to offer by way of help, not even a photograph. Sergeant Simmonds says that the next step is to share Kerry’s description with hospitals and government offices around Australia in hopes of finding a match. But, he says, it’s hard to find people who want to stay missing.
The reason Carl finds the office intimidating is, as he’s admitted elsewhere, because he’s afraid of the answers he might get when he finally tries to find Kerry. His interaction with Sergeant Simonds mirrors previous conversations in which Justine and Joy have asked him about Kerry, yet again underlining how little Carl knows about his mother and, by extension, how neglectful she was of him and his siblings.
Active
Themes
Sergeant Simmonds offers to show Carl a file containing photographs of deceased people who remain unidentified and unclaimed. It’s a long shot, but Carl might recognize one. Simmonds starts slowly, and soon Carl becomes accustomed to looking at the blank, uncanny stares of the dead. Occasionally, he asks a question about a face that piques his interest and Simmonds indulges him. That’s why, when Carl sees—but does not identify—Kerry, Simmonds doesn’t recognize the slight shift in Carl’s attitude, but Joy does. In answer to Carl’s questions, Simmonds explains that the unidentified woman was among the victims of a bus crash several months earlier. She was evidently a stowaway and had no identification with her. Carl flips through the rest of the file at the same steady pace, then thanks Simmonds for his time.
Active
Themes
