62 pages • 2 hours read
Ash DavidsonDamnation Spring
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaSymbols & Motifs
Rich’s Rotting Tooth
For most of the story, Rich is wrestling with a toothache: “He pressed his tongue to his tooth to dull the ache. Colleen was on him to see a dentist” (73). This literal decay seems to worsen, or at least persist, as he bends to Merle’s will in a bid to secure the roads he needs for the 24-7 Ridge. Colleen remarks on Rich’s intransigence: “Rich forked up a bite of pumpkin, winced. Why was he being so stubborn about that tooth?” (228-9). In reality, she might very well be asking the same question about her husband’s refusal to see the evidence of the spray poisoning the community.
It wasn’t always like this, though. When Rich met Colleen, he changed his oral habits: “He’d quit chewing snus cold turkey the day he met Colleen. Stuck a toothpick in his mouth nine years ago, and that was it” (5). It is as if Rich’s oral hygiene reflected some kind of new clarity reached upon meeting Colleen. But the rot set in after the challenges of married life, the many miscarriages, and the silences between Rich and Colleen. Its malignance or irritation exists before Rich buys the 24-7 Ridge, but then it grows as he buries his head in the sand over what is happening both in the community and his marriage. It is only when he gets it pulled that he can get over his past with his ex Astrid, confront the loss he and Colleen have faced, and ultimately turn up at Merle’s house to confront him about Scout’s murder—marking a definitive break with the Sanderson boss.
Miscommunication and Unspoken Words
Although more prominent in the first act, this is a motif made apparent by Davidson’s use of multiple points of view. For example, by using both Rich and Colleen’s perspectives, Davidson can show they have very different feelings about how Colleens is coping with the latest miscarriage—but they fail to talk directly about these issues. One example is Rich’s impression that Colleen is over the miscarriage, as she is now back to helping the local women with their births: “[She was] in a better mood since she’d started helping out the Larson girl, pregnant again […] It had taken her mind off it, finally” (23). But Colleen’s mind is anything but off it, and her better mood may be due to her no longer being viewed as somehow unlucky by the local women.
These miscommunications go beyond point of view, though, as when a desperate Colleen voices her unhappiness, to no avail:
‘Are you not attracted to me anymore?’ she asked, Rich already halfway down the hall. ‘Am I what?’ he asked, tilting his head, waiting for her to repeat it. His hearing was going, especially in that right ear, his saw ear, thirty-five years in the woods slowly lowering the volume knob on the world around him. She felt a wash of shame. ‘Nothing,’ she said (44).
Unfortunately, even the couple’s hand-squeeze language cannot bridge the silence anymore: “I. Love. You. Six months ago, it might have thrilled her…” (14), and this poor communication, including Rich’s secret purchase of the 24-7 Ridge, will push Colleen towards Daniel and the Gundersens’ marriage towards a crisis point.
Water
Water in all its guises plays a prominent role in Damnation Spring. As mentioned above, it can be harbinger of death, like Lark’s remark about the ocean; a reminder of climate catastrophe, embodied by record floods that might return; but it also functions as a primary, nourishing element to the flora, fauna, and humans living amongst the redwoods. When Colleen meets Daniel again, she asks, “What’s wrong with the water?” (39). The more pertinent question might be about what’s not wrong with the water. And because it is something humans consume out of necessity, often taking its quality for granted, Davidson touches on a vulnerability that resonates with the reader.
The local waterways are also part of the shifting landscape. They have become silted up or blocked destroying salmon spawning beds, threatening the lives that depend on them. Rich teaches Chub about the creeks, drumming into him rhymes that should help guide him. But perhaps nothing can prepare a child for an environment that is being torn to pieces around him. Rich’s reliance on old, stable wisdoms cannot prevent Chub from almost dying as he becomes lost running from Wyatt. These wisdoms might not save humanity either from a rapidly changing planet.
