The Shilling Symbol Analysis

The shilling is a minor symbol to represent love’s power to connect family, friends, and even strangers to one other. The shilling embodies this love connection by being passed between characters and playing a minor role in several of the narratives, forming a common thread that concretely connects them to each other. Mr. Husting takes the coin from Jack and gives it to Kip, who keeps it until he eventually passes it down Stanzi. Stanzi’s narrative reflects that, though she’d once imagined that love must strike like lightning, she now thinks it must be more like a simple shilling, passed around between people, carried for years and given away. She believes that like love, if one could trace the “trajectory” of the shilling, they would find connections to both friends and complete strangers—perhaps even on the other side of the world.