Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Memory and Meaning
Love and Vulnerability
Freedom
Art, Creativity, and Expression
Wonder and Knowledge
Summary
Analysis
Villon-sur-Sarthe, France. Summer 1698. Adeline sits next to her father in the cart. A pile of her father’s woodwares rests beneath their feet; Maxine, their mule, carries them away from Adeline’s village, Villon, to the city of Le Mans. Adeline begged to accompany her father, a woodworker, to the city to sell his wares, and Adeline’s mother finally gave in. It’s the first time Adeline has left home; up until now, Villon has been her entire world.
This flashback to 1698, years before Addie “signed away her soul,” hopefully will provide some additional context to help the reader understand what happened that has made Addie seemingly immortal. Addie’s eagerness to accompany her father to Le Mans shows that she has an adventurous spirit: she’s curious to see how things are outside of her small, probably pretty stifling, village.
Themes
Adeline looks behind her at the disappearing village; it’s so small now, like one of her father’s figurines. It will take a day to get to Le Mans. Adeline’s father is normally so quiet at home, but now, he tells Adeline stories. Adeline won’t remember the stories later, and she wishes she could write them down now. Later, Adeline’s father will teach her how to read and write. Adeline’s mother will be furious when she finds out—she thinks it’s a waste of time.
Villon appears to be shrinking as the cart takes Adeline farther away from her village. But the shrinking village also speaks metaphorically to the idea that travel and adventure are showing Addie how small and sheltered her life has been up to now—that there’s so much she has yet to experience in life. This section also shows how Addie’s gender affects her life—Addie’s mother takes issue with Addie learning to read and write, perhaps because these skills aren’t useful to women of Addie’s time, whose responsibilities would have been limited to domestic labor.
Themes
Adeline and her father reach Le Mans. To Adeline, the city looks big enough for giants. They reach the city square, and Adeline’s father orders Maxine to pull over. Adeline watches the bustling marketplace; she’s never seen so many people. Adeline’s father leans against their cart and carves into a block of wood as he waits for shoppers to purchase his wares. Adeline loves watching her father work; she grew up surrounded by the bowls, cups, and small wooden animal figurines he made. But Adeline’s favorite trinket is a smooth wooden ring, which she wears on a leather cord around her neck.
Addie’s observation about Le Mans being big enough for giants shows how small and sheltered her life has been up to now. She’s never seen a big city—or any city at all—and so Le Mans seems impossibly large and exciting to her. This section also introduces Addie’s wooden ring, which is one of the book’s major symbols. That Addie wears the ring tied around her neck shows that it’s very important to Addie, to whom the ring symbolizes her father’s love for her and his craft. To that end, this scene further develops the novel’s theme of the power and importance of art and self-expression.
Themes
By the end of the day, Adeline’s father has sold all his wares. He gives Adeline a copper sol and tells her she can buy whatever she’d like. Adeline walks past stalls selling pastries and dresses and dolls and buys a journal made of parchment. The blank pages excite her; she can’t wait to fill them with all her ideas. Her father buys her a bundle of charcoal sticks and draws a little bird on the corner of one page, and then he spells the word underneath. Addie and her father will spend the evening at a local inn. When they return to Villon, she’ll be an entirely different person.
That Addie walks past the stall selling dresses and dolls, opting instead for materials she can write and draw with, is further evidence of her adventurous, curious spirit. She has little interest in what her society believes young girls ought to care about, like dolls or pretty dresses, preferring instead to entertain herself with ideas and her imagination. The detail that this trip to the city has made Addie a new person is significant. It suggests that, now that Addie has a taste for the culture and excitement that exists beyond Villon, her life there will no longer be enough for her: it won’t satisfy her craving for adventure and new, exciting experiences.
Themes
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