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Chapter 8
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Good People, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Modern Religion vs. Paganism
Grief, Desperation, and Blame
Gender, Power, and Community
Fear of the Unknown
Summary
Analysis
Just before twilight on New Year’s Eve, Nóra paces her cabin, waiting for the moment when she and Mary Clifford can take Micheál to Nance’s for the first night of his treatment. Nance instructed them to gather fresh mint, and Nóra doubts what good it will do. But Mary insists that mint is protective, explaining how she used to tie it around her siblings’ wrists. She adds that two of her sisters have passed away, and that she loved them dearly, but Nóra insists that nothing matches a mother’s love for her child and that losing Johanna was a deeper loss than Mary can understand.
Nóra is desperate to begin Micheál’s treatments because she wants her “normal” grandson back, and Nance is her final hope. She cannot accept that the Micheál she once knew is gone—but she believes that if Nance is as gifted as everyone says, she may never have to. Mary, on the other hand, seems to have accepted the tragic losses of her own sisters, themselves just children. But Nóra’s insistence that a mother’s grief is deeper speaks to the narrowing of her empathy; her pain has made her self-centered, unable to see that grief is universal.
Active
Themes
Mary Clifford mentions there’s a bonfire burning on the mountain and wonders if there will be dancing too, but Nóra reminds her that she’s there to work, not dance. As they step outside, they notice a westerly wind, which Nóra hopes will herald “a better year than last.” Meanwhile, in her cabin, Nance awaits their arrival, thinking of the only other changeling she ever cured, a young girl she freed from the Good People years ago after seven days of treatments. The girl regained her voice. Afterward, Nance’s thumbs turned inward and her knuckles swelled, and she considered this the mark of the Good People upon her.
The bonfire outside is a fleeting reminder that there is a whole world beyond Nóra’s grief and that life continues on with or without her participation. Her sharp remark to Mary reveals how cut off she’s become from the rhythms of her community, too consumed by her personal loss to see renewal as anything but mockery. Meanwhile, Nance’s memory of curing another changeling gives her confidence that she can do it again. The Good People have physically marked her, so the threat of fairy interference is just as real to Nance as her own swollen knuckles.
Active
Themes
When Nóra and Mary Clifford arrive with Micheál, Nance instructs Mary to chew the mint leaves and spit the juice into a bowl. Nance mixes it into a paste and pours it into Micheál’s ears, then rubs selfheal into the soles of his feet. She says that by morning, Nóra will know whether her grandson has been restored—or if nothing has changed. That night, Nóra dreams she accidentally beats Micheál to death with a wooden beetle while washing Martin’s clothes, unaware the boy is in the bucket of water. She wakes in a panic and goes to check on him, relieved to find him alive, but still unchanged by Nance’s treatment.
