48 pages • 1 hour read
Kate AtkinsonCase Histories: A Novel
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2004A 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
Blue Mouse
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses child sexual abuse, the death of a child, murder, violence, domestic violence, suicide, and rape.
Blue Mouse is Olivia Land’s beloved toy that disappeared along with her when she vanished. It serves as a symbol of Olivia herself, as well as a reminder that the evil she endured must not be forgotten. Jackson describes it as a “doll” that was “made of some kind of grubby toweling material and had long thin legs and arms and the head of a mouse” (89). Though Olivia is never forgotten by her sisters, it is Blue Mouse’s reappearance in their father’s locked desk drawer that causes them to hire Jackson to find out what happened to their sister. Blue Mouse’s presence is an insistent reminder that the truth about Olivia must be uncovered.
Blue Mouse also helps Jackson solve the case—he watches people’s reactions to the toy. When he shows it to Sylvia, he understands that she knows more than she has admitted to: “The thing about Sylvia was that she hadn’t really been surprised to see Blue Mouse. It was as if she’d been waiting for him to turn up eventually” (376). Sylvia also doesn’t ask Jackson where he found Blue Mouse. When he confronts her about this, she confesses that she accidentally killed Olivia and hid the body with their father’s help. The toy also miraculously survives the explosion that destroys Jackson’s house.
Black Cats
Black cats are a motif that appear throughout Case Histories and represent an element of luck and the supernatural. At the novel’s beginning, Jackson classifies himself as a purely practical person, an ex-cop who has seen everything and struggles not to be jaded because of it. When he is viewing the former law office where Laura Wyre was killed, the receptionist tells him that she can see the supernatural. She says, “Black cats are very lucky for you” (176), and Jackson is annoyed by this seemingly absurd revelation; he “felt an unexpected disappointment because for one weird, unnerving moment he thought she was actually going to say something portentous” (176). This moment is ironic because Jackson actually has been given a true prophecy, though he does not recognize it as one. This motif is also humorous because black cats are typically considered unlucky.
Though the book never commits overtly to the supernatural, the motif of black cats is associated with luck throughout the book. Jackson narrowly escapes an explosion in his house because he leaves it to rescue a black cat outside. He is attuned to the presence of black cats because of Binky Rain, who has “this thing about black cats in particular” and worries that hers are being stolen (85). Jackson regularly visits Binky and pretends that he will look for her cats that she thinks are missing, though he really sees “his visits to her more as a social service” because she is so lonely (85). As a reward for his kindness, Binky leaves him her fortune when she dies. Thus, black cats not only save Jackson’s life and but also make him wealthy.
Flowers
Flowers function as a motif symbolizing growth, renewal, and innocence. For Amelia, gardening is a religious experience: “Amelia believed in gardening in the same way that Sylvia believed in God. Like Sylvia, she had been converted” (116). She experiences this epiphany after planting a rosebush and watching “as blossom after blossom burst forth. It was a revelation—you plant something, it grows” (116). Though Julia only responds “duh” when Amelia tries to explain the magic of this, for Amelia, the experience is a “miracle.” After a loveless and traumatic childhood and a lonely life, Amelia finds renewal and beauty in her garden. At the novel’s end, she plans to transform Binky Rain’s wildly overgrown yard into a memorial to Olivia, filled with roses. She thinks “Olivia would have a shrine, she would have a garden” (416). The interchange of “shrine” for “garden” underscores how important this place is for Amelia. It is a way of redeeming her tragic childhood and memorializing her beloved sister.
Flowers also appear in the names of Laura’s rescued dog, Poppy, and in Tanya’s new name, Lily-Rose. Theo thinks that they are both “little abandoned, mistreated creatures with their new, flowery names” (396). The bright imagery of their names belies the terror and trauma of their pasts. Lily-Rose confides to Theo that she chose the name herself, and when he tells her it’s pretty, she says, “Thank you, it’s my own” (300). Though her life has been difficult, she sees the act of renaming herself as a choice to “start fresh” (396). Thus, the flowers in her name and Poppy’s represent renewal and her hope that the future can be better than the past.
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By Kate Atkinson
