46 pages • 1 hour read
Tillie ColeA Thousand Boy Kisses
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Music and Photography
Music and photography are Poppy’s and Rune’s hobbies, respectively, and they symbolize each character’s role vis-à-vis the novel’s theme of The Fleeting Nature of Life and the Importance of Memory. Poppy’s passion for the cello, and her love of music more broadly, represents the fleeting nature of her life. When Poppy thinks about music, she focuses on specific moments, such as the final note, the silence that comes after that note, or the crescendo of a piece. These elements of music last only a matter of seconds, but Poppy relishes them nonetheless. The transient, ephemeral nature of music mirrors Poppy’s mortality, and music becomes a symbol for the necessity of appreciating each moment of experience. The cello itself is also a symbol of Poppy’s love for music, as it is the literal instrument through which she expresses her passion.
Photography is a complementary symbol to music, as it embodies the opposite of transience: permanence. Rune’s talent for photography grants him the ability to turn moments of fleeting beauty into permanent memories and artifacts. Rune’s tradition of taking a photo of Poppy as soon as she finishes performing a piece illustrates the symbiotic nature of their hobbies and personalities. While Poppy relishes the transient moment of silence after the final note, Rune commits that moment to memory through a physical photograph, allowing him to hold on to the moment in some fashion. Together, these symbols represent Poppy and Rune’s roles in the novel, as Poppy is meant to have a short, full life, and Rune is meant to carry the memory of that life with him for the rest of his own time.
Cherry Blossoms
Cherry blossoms, like music, represent the fleeting nature of life and moments of happiness and beauty. Rune and Poppy think about and discuss the blossoms year-round, but they can only see the blossoms during the brief period of blooming. The novel explicitly draws a parallel between Poppy and the flowers, as both will inevitably wither. Sure enough, when Poppy dies, she sees the cherry blossoms floating away, and she dies with them. When Rune later sees Poppy in his dreams, it is always in the blossom grove; he can carry Poppy in his heart in day-to-day life, but he can only briefly see Poppy in his dreams.
At the same time, the cherry blossoms symbolize the permanence of Rune and Poppy’s love. Both Poppy and Rune say the blossom grove is their favorite place, and it is where most of the crucial moments in their lives occur, from kisses to important conversations; it is even Poppy’s final resting place. Ten years later, Rune dies and returns to the blossom grove in the afterlife. The cherry blossoms are something Poppy and Rune share, and the fact that they return to the blossom grove in the afterlife further connects the coming and going of the blossoms with the “infinite” nature of the love these characters share; Poppy’s death seems to mark the end of the relationship but actually only interrupts it.
“For Infinity” and “Forever Always”
The phrases “For infinity” and “Forever always” are motifs paired with a couple of symbols. Rune and Poppy say the phrases throughout the novel as affirmations of their undying love for one another, making the motif a reminder of The Intensity of Young Love. This element of the motif informs the symbol of Poppy’s infinity earrings, which she wears even when she and Rune are not sure how to proceed after his return from Norway. The earrings are a gift from Rune, and they represent the permanence of Rune and Poppy’s love. Likewise, Poppy is always tracing infinity symbols on Rune’s hands and skin, integrating the idea of infinity into their experiences together. As Rune and Poppy share an intense and all-encompassing romance, the idea of infinity underscores the unique nature of their relationship, subverting the trope of brief and meaningless teenage affairs.
The motif also suggests the completeness of Rune and Poppy’s love, embodied in the symbol of the jar of boy kisses and then modified when Poppy gives Rune a jar for girl kisses. The boy kisses are a goal that follow Rune and Poppy throughout the novel, giving a sense of pacing to Rune and Poppy’s relationship. However, at the end of the novel, Rune tells Poppy in the afterlife that his 1,000 girl kisses were the same as Poppy’s 1,000 boy kisses, implicitly suggesting the broader way in which they fulfilled each other. The motif of forever and infinity underscores this concept of entwined and therefore all-encompassing experience.
