Previous
Part 4, Chapter 11: Ancient Soul, Cyprus, early 2000s
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Island of Missing Trees, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Generational Trauma
Nature and Interconnectedness
Love and Displacement
Solidarity, Tribalism, and Political Division
History and Silencing
Summary
Analysis
The day after Defne visited Kostas at the hotel, the butterflies from North Africa arrived in Cyprus. Many of them landed on the fig tree’s branches, and one of them told the tree about its journey. On that journey, the butterfly landed in a military cemetery in Cyprus and was surprised to find British infants buried there too. The butterfly perched on a grave that read “In Memory of Yusuf Yiorgos Robinson” with dates from January 1975 to July 1976. The fig tree says it knew then who the baby was and why he was named after Yusuf and Yiorgos.
Notably, a butterfly—a symbol in the novel of looking for hope in the worst circumstances—delivers the news of Yusuf Yiorgos’s death to the fig tree. In this case, the butterfly symbolizes the possibility of rebirth and regrowth even in the deepest pain and devastation, when hope or beauty seem the least present or even possible.
Active
Themes
