Gossamer

“They were growing old together and were good friends to each other. The dog made her take walks and gave her someone to talk to. He was all she needed. The dog and the house. And her dreams. The tiny footsteps that crossed her bedroom each night never woke her.”

Lowry depicts the unnamed elderly woman’s loneliness to establish what her life is like before she takes in John. Like the boy, the woman is in need of healing. The dog that serves as her only companion serves as a symbol of love, and his companionship foreshadows the role that he will play in John’s healing.

“Thin Elderly raised his hand. ‘I’d rather have that house, as a matter of fact. My assigned house is very spare, very minimalist. Not much to touch. It makes a dull night.’

Most Ancient peered at him. ‘Have you ever supervised?’

‘No. But I think I’d do a good job. I like little ones.’”

Thin Elderly becomes an important supporting character when he volunteers to replace Fastidious as Littlest One’s teacher. The protagonist flourishes under her new mentor because he recognizes her creativity and curiosity as strengths. As the novel continues, the teacher and the student grow close and weather serious challenges together.

“Through touching, they gather material: memories, colors, words once spoken, hints of scents and the tiniest fragments of forgotten sound. They collect pieces of the past, of long ago and of yesterday. They combine these things carefully, creating dreams. Then they insert the dreams as the humans (and sometimes animals, for occasionally they give dreams to pets, as well) sleep. The act of dream insertion is called bestowal.”

The novel contains several words that Lowry either invented or gave a new meaning. This explanation of bestowal offers an example of how she provides exposition for these terms. Lowry frequently employs imagery in the novel, and the passage is one example with its references to “colors, words once spoken, hints of scents.” The sensory impressions reflect the fragmented but vivid nature of the memories that the dream-givers collect.

“Life had become very lonely for the woman, but she was accustomed to her solitude. She sipped her tea, sighed, and fingered a folded letter and its envelope that lay on the table. With a worried look she thought about the way her existence was about to change.”

The letter and the woman’s awareness that her “existence was about to change” foreshadow that John will come to live with her. At first, she is “worried” about altering her familiar, solitary lifestyle, but this change turns out to be a positive development for both her and the boy.

“Littlest trembled a little. ‘Can it bestow?’ she asked.

Thin Elderly gave a scornful laugh. ‘We bestow dreams,’ he reminded her. ‘But a…’—again his voice dropped to a whisper—’Sinisteed?’ He pondered for a moment. Then he said, ‘It inflicts.’

‘Inflicts?’

‘Inflicts something called nightmares.’”

The revelation that dream-givers can become frightful entities known as Sinisteeds adds an element of suspense and danger to the hitherto cozy world of the dream-givers. Lowly uses precise verbs, such as “trembled” and “[i]nflicts” to create a tense, menacing atmosphere.

“Silently, following the sequence exactly, Littlest One bestowed a dream for the first time. And there in the darkened bedroom, during a dream that by morning would be forgotten, the lonely woman became a girl and was kissed by a young soldier. At dawn she woke with a vague feeling of happiness.”

Littlest One’s first time bestowing a dream marks an important development for the plot and the protagonist’s growth. This event also advances the theme of The Healing Power of Happy Memories through the “feeling of happiness” that the dream offers the woman. Lowry leaves most of the human characters nameless, referring to them instead with descriptions, such as “the lonely woman” and “the young soldier.” This gives the novel a tone reminiscent of a parable and increases the narrative’s focus on symbolism and themes.

“‘His name is John,’ she told the dog as she leaned down to fasten the leash to his collar. ‘He’s an angry little boy named John, and we must be very patient with him. He’ll be here Friday.’”

The woman’s decision to welcome John into her home is the inciting incident which sets much of the novel’s plot and characterization into motion. Her mention of the boy’s anger and the need to “be very patient with him” foreshadow her interactions with John and connect to The Role of Empathy and Compassion in Addressing Trauma.

“It was the one object that he enjoyed the most, for touching it brought a breeze shot through with sunshine, the tangy whiff of salt, a child’s laughter pealing across the breeze, and cool foam on bare feet sinking into their own outline in gritty sand at the ocean’s edge. Collecting all of that at once was weighty. But Strapping was strong. He touched the shell, smoothing his touch around its perimeter, gathering the fragments to bestow the woman once again with the dream she loved and needed most.”

Lowry provides sensory imagery to bring the woman’s memory of the day at the beach to life, such as “the tangy whiff of salt” and “a child’s laughter.” These details appeal to multiple senses, tracking touch, smell, and sound, and convey the great joy and importance of the woman’s memory with her son. John’s mother is a survivor of domestic abuse, and Strapping’s efforts to give her “the dream she loved and needed most” speak to The Healing Power of Happy Memories.

“He scowled when the woman called him Johnny. She held a paper in her hand, and he could see that his name was on it. His name was also printed in thick letters on a tag that flapped from the handle of his suitcase. JOHN. So why did the woman call him Johnny, a dumb nickname, a wimp name? He began to hate her for it. But he wouldn’t let her know. He kept his face frozen, expressionless. He had mastered that. No one knew any of his feelings.”

John’s introduction offers characterization and hints at his painful history. He doesn’t bother learning his caretaker’s name and instead thinks of her as “the woman” because he is accustomed to being rejected by adults and doesn’t expect to stay with her for long. The boy’s anger, bitterness, and habit of hiding his feelings indicate his trauma and need for healing.

“‘I might give it to you later,’ he whispered to the dog. It was a good game, to get someone to believe you, even a dumb dog. Get them to trust you. Then surprise them. Hah. He’d keep pulling the biscuit away forever.”

John’s cruelty toward Toby represents a coping mechanism: He attempts to deal with his trauma by exercising power over another living creature. John later learns to love again by forging a bond with Toby, and his character development is reflected by observing his interactions with the dog.

“I’m feeling a gathering starting. A Horde. This happens only rarely. Over the years, occasionally, they have focused on one victim, someone particularly helpless. Then they mass and descend. Perhaps only the oldest of you here have ever experienced it.”

The first mention of a Horde of Sinisteeds appears in Most Ancient’s warning to the other dream-givers of the Heap. This ominous dialogue increases the novel’s suspense and foreshadows the fact that the Horde will target John because his difficulty dealing with his traumatic past makes him “particularly helpless.”

“‘Once upon a time,’ the woman said, ‘there was a little boy. His name was John, and he was—’

‘At the beach. He was at the beach with his mom,’ the boy said sleepily.

‘Yes, he was at the beach with his mom on a beautiful sunny day. It was warm, with a nice breeze. Seagulls were overhead, and—’

‘Shells,’ he said, but his eyelids were fluttering and his voice was drowsy.”

By comforting the boy after a Sinisteed makes him relive a terrible experience, the woman demonstrates The Role of Empathy and Compassion in Addressing Trauma. John reaches for his memory of the day at the beach with his mother in this moment of great fear, which shows The Healing Power of Happy Memories. In addition, John mentions seashells in this passage, and the shells he and his mother possess symbolize their fragile yet cherished relationship.

“‘Sometime you’ll get really, really mad at him,’ John said. He tore one piece of toast in half and stacked the two pieces on top of each other. ‘Then you won’t want him. You’ll probably give him away.’”

When John tells the woman that she’ll “get really, really mad” at Toby and give him away, he’s really talking about himself and voicing why he thinks he was separated from his mother. This passage illustrates John’s sense of abandonment. At this point in the novel, the boy doesn’t believe in trust or unconditional love because he makes these comments even after the woman assures him that she’ll always take care of Toby.

“‘But I think he really needs me most,’ she confided, yawning, ‘because he’s very little, for a human boy. And I know what it’s like to be little.’

‘Well,’ said Thin Elderly, ‘it will serve him well, your understanding.’”

Through Littlest One, Lowry develops the theme of The Role of Empathy and Compassion in Addressing Trauma, as she explains that she feels a special bond with John because of their small size. Her belief that the boy “really needs [her] the most” foreshadows the novel’s climax, in which she helps the boy face a Horde of Sinisteeds.

“The little boy took out a bone-shaped biscuit, felt its shape with his fingers, considered briefly, and then gave it to the dog, who accepted it with an eager gulp. ‘Don’t get used to this,’ John said to Toby, ‘because I’m out of here tomorrow.’”

Giving the dog a biscuit represents an important development regarding The Role of Empathy and Compassion in Addressing Trauma because John was cruel to the dog previously. The boy’s empathy is sparked by the knowledge that Toby, like him, has been mistreated. At the same time, John still exercises caution around the subjects of attachment and trust. When he tells Toby, “Don’t get used to this,” he is also reminding himself that he might not be allowed to stay for long.

“‘He’s starting to love the dog! I can feel it!’

‘And so…’ Thin Elderly, hesitating, considered what she had said.

‘I need to touch the dog. Lightly, of course. In a very gossamer way.’”

Littlest One’s solution to the problem of John possessing few objects with happy memories highlights her character development. She demonstrates creativity and courage by going against the dream-givers’ rules. The appearance of the word “gossamer” reinforces Lowry’s overall message about the importance of gentleness to the healing process. Furthermore, Littlest One’s certainty of the bond between the boy and the dog indicates John’s growth and emphasizes Toby’s significance as a symbol of love.

“The building would be noisy with children, and he could be one of them. ‘Hey, John!’ she’d hear, in the hall, a kid calling to her boy, and the two would laugh at some joke, and there would be kids’ artwork hanging on the walls, and one picture would have his signature: JOHN. She’d be so proud, then.”

Lowry uses the young woman’s daydream to provide indirect characterization. John’s mother imagines a better life for her and her son, one in which they experience friendship, respect, and safety. Chapter 20 is set at the school where she works. This is a good sign for her healing because it’s the first time narrative follows her anywhere but her dreary apartment, and gaining employment is an important part of her regaining control of her life and preparing to parent John again. Her daydream comes true when John attends the school at the end of the novel.

“Now Strapping was doing what Dowager had hoped he would do, becoming what she had wanted him to become. He looked around the shabby dwelling place attentively each night, assessing the changes in the young woman’s life. He saw her attempts to create a little order. He saw how she had arranged the toys in the second, unoccupied bedroom, lining up the Matchbox cars on a shelf, placing the baseball cap on the bedpost after she had picked it up from the floor, where it had lain untouched for days.”

This passage explores The Role of Empathy and Compassion in Addressing Trauma by showing how empathy changes Strapping’s perspective of the woman and her apartment. The “second, unoccupied bedroom” is clearly meant for John, so arranging it reflects her broader efforts to ready her life for her son’s return.

“‘He was running around with no clothes on and he peed on the floor! Like a dog! Like a stupid dog! It was bad! And so the father rubbed his face in it, because that’s what you do with dogs!’

‘John?’

‘I said SHUT UP!’”

Chapter 23 delves directly into John’s trauma, which has previously been presented in oblique allusions and clues. He tells the story as though it happened to someone else, and he is unable to accept the woman’s compassion, as demonstrated by his furious, all-capitalized demand that she “SHUT UP.” This incident gives insight into John’s characterization, especially his anger and distrust. During the novel’s climax, the Horde of Sinisteeds use this traumatic event as the basis of the nightmares that they give John and the woman.

“Outside, in the near distance, the noise was increasing. Hoofbeats. Shrill, agitated whinnies. ‘The attic,’ Thin Elderly said. ‘Meet me in the attic. Now go. Hurry. Help the boy!’”

As the story’s climax and the Horde of Sinisteeds approach, Lowry employs a number of techniques to build suspense. Her use of italics emphasizes the need for haste, the eerie, sonic imagery of the “[s]hrill, agitated whinnies” shows that the menacing creatures’ arrival is imminent, since it is close enough to hear.

“‘Littlest?’ But the attic was empty. Frantically, Thin Elderly searched. When he realized that she had not made it, that she had been trampled and scorched by the creatures below, that she had been crushed and kicked aside as they went about their evil work, Thin Elderly huddled, grief-stricken, in the corner of the attic. Head in his arms, he wept.”

The mournful moment when Thin Elderly believes that his student has been destroyed adds to the tension of the novel’s climax. This scene also serves as an example of dramatic irony because the reader knows that Littlest One found refuge from the Sinisteeds by hiding under John’s bed. This means that, instead of providing suspense, it is a moment of character development for Thin Elderly, since it is clear how much Thin Elderly’s student means to him even though dream-givers aren’t meant to exhibit human feelings like love.

“He began to laugh, and when he did, the thick dog food fell from his mouth to the ground, and there was Toby, scarfing it down! How funny that was! The woman saw that and laughed with him, and the man was angry, but the laughter took his power away altogether. He was useless now, the man. He disappeared. The man was gone, and the woman sang, and they laughed and laughed, and then the boy picked up the bat and hit the ball and the crowd cheered and cheered and cheered, and beside him, as he ran the bases, fluttering there just by his shoulder, was a yellow butterfly—”

The novel’s climax highlights The Healing Power of Happy Memories. Littlest One gives John the strength to overcome the Horde’s nightmare by bestowing a dream that combines some of his happiest memories. The dream is symbolic. Toby, who represents love, turns the tide by allowing John to laugh and take “his [father’s] power away altogether.” The crowd’s cheers underline John’s triumph over the traumatic nightmare, and the yellow butterfly symbolizes the start of a new life for the boy.

“‘John doesn’t have a real grandmother. They’re both dead. But this woman’s like a grandmother—a fake one, I guess…’

‘A surrogate grandmother,’ the nurse said, smiling. ‘Lucky kid.’

‘Yes. And he’s going to keep staying with her for a while. She’ll bring him to school each day.’”

The novel’s hopeful yet unresolved ending shows that healing is a process, not something that’s magically completed in a single night. At the same time, this is a happy ending because John and his mother will be able to see one another again and because John has found someone who is like family to him, a “surrogate grandmother” who can take care of him until his mother is ready to become a full-time parent.