Symbolizing Snails

[stefanie]

Over the course of the novel, Marie-Laure has a deep connection with snails that increased as she moved from Paris to Saint-Malo. Could the snails in the grotto symbolize Marie-Laure's change as she moved due to the war? The author once mentioned "They have been kept for years in pill boxes, and yet on subjecting them to moisture, have crawled about appearing as well as ever... The shell may be broken, and even portions of it removed, and yet after a certain lapse of time the injured parts will be repaired by a deposition of shelly matter at the fractured parts" (Doerr, 284). Do you think the snails could represent Etienne and/or Marie-Laure, based on the quote? And if so, who or what is the "shelly matter" that fixed the "broken shell?"

[Sara S.]

If any character in the story could be represented by a snail, it would most certainly be Etienne. First of all, before Marie-Laure arrived, Etienne had never gone out of the house in years. Instead, he stayed in his study, hallucinating and descending into insanity. His shell was "broken" until Marie-Laure came along. Marie-Laure's courage and charisma was the "shelly matter" that fixed Etienne's "broken shell."