36 pages • 1 hour read
Mary HoodHow Far She Went
Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 1984A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Story Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaSymbols & Motifs
Solomon’s Seal and the Unpoisoned Apples
The False Solomon’s Seal in the Epigraph, the true Solomon’s Seal in the story of the same title, and the apples of “A Country Girl” may not recur throughout the collection, but what they symbolize is the recurring theme of the collection. The question the characters suffer through is whether “to speak the word which opens chaos” or live and “die in abstinence” (Epigraph). These plants are the flora of the Georgian pastoral—offering both the idyllic and its dark underside. False Solomon’s Seal is used as a folk medicinal treatment, but its look-alike, true Solomon’s Seal, is deadly. The apples in Rydal fall from the tree—safe from pesticides in this rural Eden.
In the end, the question for the characters of whether to seek true and authentic experience is answered—either with the declaration of the false as true at the cost of happiness, or in the elimination what is false at the cost of life itself.
Death of the Family Dog
The images of the dogs dying in this collection are disruptive, not only to the reader, but to the outcome of the stories. Carl’s dogs slowly die from Parvo; Smokey Dawn lies in the goldenrod with buzzards overhead; the loyal dog whimpers while his trusted companion holds him under water until he ceases to struggle; Lady is shot point-blank and drags herself towards home to die; JoJo decomposes beside a pond. These images represent more than deaths. They represent the demise of all things loyal, true, and innocent. They represent perhaps the only genuine exchange of feeling for the characters. Ultimately, their loss drives the characters to do the unthinkable—“to speak the word which opens chaos” (Epigraph).
The Music Box
The music box is a gift that Elizabeth Inglish receives from her suitor in “A Country Girl.” It is the only music box in the collection, but symbolically it offers a metaphor for the lives these stories’ characters have complacently embraced. When she receives the gift, she decides that her suitor will be the one—that her life will continue the generational cycle of porches and guitars and barefoot girls running to the annual reunion. Just as the music box repeats its story with each opening and closing, the characters in these stories are living in the music box of their lives—facing the decision of how to accept or escape.
