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Summary
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 fig tree says that it has been years since it fled Cyprus packed into a suitcase, but she still thinks of that island every day. When the fig tree left, a partition separated the island into two halves. Nicosia, the capital, was divided too. According to the fig tree, “cartography is another name for stories told by winners.” There isn’t a comparable name for stories told by those who have lost, the fig tree adds.
The novel begins with commentary from the fig tree, highlighting Shafak’s decision to give a tree a literal voice throughout the novel. That decision points to the novel’s theme that trees and plants communicate in ways that humans are just beginning to comprehend. That communication, the novel suggests, is a form of intelligence.
Active
Themes
The fig tree says that there’s a hillside in Nicosia; on that hill, there’s a well. If you look into it, you might see the glint of a pocket watch caught in the sun. On the back of the watch, you would find two engraved letters: Y&Y. Two men are trapped at the bottom of the well, the fig tree says. They owned a popular tavern. In their 40s, they were murdered. Someday, the fig tree says, the well will collapse, and the bodies will rise to the surface, as “every secret is bound to do in the end.”
