57 pages • 1 hour read
Danielle EvansThe Office of Historical Corrections
Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaSymbols & Motifs
Water
Water is a recurring motif throughout The Office of Historical Corrections. In some forms like the ocean’s vastness or powerful storms, water represents danger or the unknown. In “Alcatraz,” Cecilia rents an apartment directly overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Alcatraz prison, where her great-grandfather was wrongfully imprisoned. The prison island’s isolation on the ocean reflects the isolating nature of grief and obsession as both Papa and Anne devote their lives to his acquittal over all other pursuits. Water thus conveys the idea of Running from Versus Reckoning with the Past as Cecilia journeys out on the water with her mother for the first time, deciding to confront their past and appropriately grapple with what happened to Papa.
Similarly, in “The Office of Historical Corrections,” the storm at the text’s conclusion foreshadows impending danger. As Cassie obsessively watches videos from the Free Americans, it rains outside, and she begins to grow unsure of Genevieve’s decision to confront Chase. In “Happily Ever After,” Lyssa wonders how Ariel could give up “the whole ocean for one man” (1) in The Little Mermaid, even though she has never even seen the ocean. At her job, however, she becomes surrounded by the ocean, first in the Titanic replica and then in the pop star’s music video, which incorporates sea monsters and life under the ocean. As she watches the video at the text’s conclusion, she sees the shadows cast by the video lighting in the underwater setting which leaves “the smallest spaces on her body all lit up with danger” (18). Although that danger—of ovarian cancer—is not directly related to the ocean, the sea setting reminds her of her need to reckon with her family’s history of ovarian cancer.
In contrast to these three stories, “Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain” presents water as a form of change and catharsis, mimicking water’s role in birth. Through the text, Rena grapples with her grief and inability to face her sister, instead choosing to endanger her life through promiscuous relationships. However, at the text’s conclusion, as she and Dori spend the day at the water park having fun—the first time in years for Rena—she finally lets thoughts of her sister into her life and grieves what happened to her. The water park, then, is a sanctuary of sorts that allows Rena to face her past and deal with her grief.
Coping Through Sex
One important motif throughout the text is the way that characters cope with their grief through sex. In “Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain,” Rena intentionally seeks out the thrill of aggressive sex with strangers, often married men. Her grief manifests in the form of self-harm, choosing sex as a distraction, a way to punish herself, and a way to feel powerful over men. In “Boys Go to Jupiter,” Claire uses sex as a form of comfort. To cope with her mother’s death, she seeks comfort in Aaron. She views their sexual relationship as platonic and explains how the weight of Aaron in bed “tethers her to something” (66), allowing her to stop losing herself in her grief.
In “The Office of Historical Corrections,” Cassie sleeps with Nick despite living with Daniel and feels guilt over her actions. As explored in the theme of Intersectional Discrimination: Gender and Skin Color, Cassie enjoys the ease with which she moves through life when she is with Nick, and she deeply misses the privilege she has with him. She notes how Daniel “would have hated […] the person [she] became when [she] was with him” (210-11) and feels guilty. However, her decision to sleep with Nick goes hand in hand with her desire to no longer feel that guilt. Instead of confronting or dealing with these feelings, she pushes them aside, “trying to be a woman without baggage, a woman who did not believe the worst was always coming” (244). Her internal conflict—over whether to be true to her Blackness with Daniel or take advantage of the white privilege she feels with Nick, manifests in the form of their sexual encounter, as she gives into her bodily desires rather than grappling with what her feelings mean.
Hidden Danger
A motif in “Happily Ever After” and “Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain” is hidden danger. In “Happily Ever After,” that danger occurs in the form of cancer. As Lyssa’s mother dies of ovarian cancer, it is advised that Lyssa have her ovaries removed, forcing her to choose between having children or her own safety. As she grapples with her potential illness, she “[can’t] remember walking around without suspecting that something inside of her wanted her dead” (15). The hidden danger that cancer poses conveys the theme of Running from Versus Reckoning with the Past, as Lyssa battles with the decision to have her ovaries removed or to potentially have children. Rena in “Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain” deals with a similar feeling of being unprepared to face the world’s hidden dangers. When Elizabeth is shot, she compares the very real dangers of her travel to those that people like Conor pose: “The danger is in chemicals and airports and refugee camps and war zones and regions known for sex tourism. The danger also sometimes took the trash out for them. The danger came over for movie night” (32). In other words, Rena justifies her risk-taking—both in her job and in her sexual encounters—by rationalizing that there is danger everywhere, even in the most ordinary people.
