44 pages • 1 hour read
Jen BeaginBig Swiss
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A 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
Transcription
The act of transcription is both Greta’s literal job and a motif that structures the novel’s exploration of her emotional disconnection. In transcription, Greta can live vicariously through other people’s problems and joys. Greta mistakes intimate knowledge of a person’s life for intimate connection.
Greta’s misidentification of knowledge-as-intimacy reveals her inability to process her own psychological trauma. The transcripts demonstrate the courage and vulnerability of other people who are working on knowing themselves more, while Greta refuses to look deeper into herself and undergo the same self-reflection. Structurally, the novel’s use of transcripts reveals important perceptions of Greta that Beagin’s third-person limited point-of-view wouldn’t otherwise develop.
The Phantom Glass
The phantom glass in Greta’s foot is a symbol for the pain that her unresolved trauma causes her. When Greta’s relationship with Big Swiss becomes more stressful, demanding, and precarious, Greta’s stress manifests the phantom glass. She believes that there is a shard of glass stuck in her right foot, and she tries to dig it out, causing self-harm. The shard of glass doesn’t exist. The injury to the right foot evokes Greta’s past, when she broke her right foot around the same time her mother died by suicide. Because Greta has not dealt with her mother’s death and her own guilt over that death, Greta has spent decades physically manifesting internal trauma.
Greta is convinced the glass exists and does not question where the sensation comes from. Om takes her phantom glass seriously; he examines her foot thoroughly so he can prove to her that the glass doesn’t exist. The revelation that the glass isn’t real is an important turning point in Greta’s character development. With the disappearance of the phantom glass, Greta is forced to confront her past.
The Mini Donkeys
The mini donkeys are complex symbols that represent different thematic aspects for Sabine and Greta.
For Sabine, the presence of the donkeys confirms that Sabine is nurturing and capable of taking care of someone else. The donkeys bring more warmth to her home. They demonstrate that Sabine’s home, though dilapidated, is a special and loving environment. Sabine’s love for the donkeys illustrates the Complexity of Human Connection in her ability to love the donkeys as a way to recover from her drug dependency.
For Greta, the mini donkeys represent a gateway to healing and dealing with her Physical and Psychological Trauma. Greta’s traumatic summer at horseback riding camp has made her afraid of horses. Donkeys connect to her memories of horses because they are of the same Equidae family, though they are a different species. The mini donkeys are similar enough to the horses of Greta’s traumatic past to allow her to access that past, but smaller and different enough to give Greta a new opportunity to revisit that past with a safer mindset. At the conclusion of the novel, Greta nurtures her inner child by feeding the donkeys and rubbing against them, overcoming her fear of horses. The donkeys are symbolic of Greta’s new beginning and journey toward self-discovery.
