65 pages • 2 hours read
Lisa WingateShelterwood
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A 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
Shelterwood
As Valerie explains in Chapter 31, “Shelterwood is an obscure forestry term for older, larger trees that protect the smaller, younger growth beneath” (313). In the novel, the author uses the motif of shelterwood to emphasize Olive’s role as a nurturer and protector. The image also reinforces the theme of Nature as a Source of Healing and Refuge.
Olive invents the name “Shelterwood Town” for her home in the Winding Stair Mountains, the place where she is trying to take Nessa and the others. When their trip is halted because they need to wait for Amos to heal from his gunshot wound, Olive names their summer camp in the forest “Shelterwood Camp.” She also imagines “Shelterwood School” as a place where she will teach the younger children to read and write. Olive’s affinity for naming different havens “shelterwood” reflects two significant aspects of her character, the most prominent of which is her desire to create a better, safer environment for herself and others. This nurturing, activist side of Olive resembles the forestry concept of “shelterwood,” and the motif also reinforces her connection with nature and her belief that natural spaces offer healing and refuge.
The “Dewy Trees”
The Dewy Trees are a symbol representing the layers of history that exist in any given place. In the 1990 timeline, the phrase “Dewy Trees” stands as a catch-all term that the locals use to refer to the various trees carved with the name “Dewy.” These trees become part of a lighthearted treasure hunt for visitors to Horsethief Trail National Park who try to locate the trees. As Curtis puts it, looking for the trees is “like an Easter egg hunt, only a whole lot bigger. Kids love it” (185). Early in the novel, one of Valerie’s coworkers tells her that the “Dewy” who carved his name into the trees was a bootlegger and a bandit who lived in the woods. Curtis also mentions the trees to Valerie, thinking that Charlie will enjoy hunting for the mysterious carved name in the woods. On a broader level, the presence of the trees offers an echo of the region’s past, inviting the modern-day characters to think about the people who once lived there.
The 1909 timeline provides a clear origin story for the Dewy Trees, for it is Olive who teaches Dewey how to write his name, although he “can’t be bothered to write the E twice, so he spells it D-E-W-Y” (250). This quirk in Dewey’s personality has unusual staying power; while only a few people are left alive in 1990 to remember the real Dewey, his willful stubbornness lingers on in the marks he left on the trees. The origin story differs from what modern-day park visitors believe about Dewey’s identity, and they don’t even know that the name is spelled incorrectly, but Dewey’s presence lives on indefinitely in these erstwhile monuments to his whimsical nature. Thus, the Dewy Trees draw attention to the layers of history and the complex ways in which the present interacts with the past.
The Elf Children
The motif of the elf children is a recurring element in Shelterwood. At first, Olive applies this label to Tula, Pinti, and Koi, and the label is later repeated in Mr. Brotherton’s newspaper story, which features a drawing of all the children, including Olive and Dewey. Finally, the label is applied to Olive, Nessa, and Koi in the report that brings Kate Barnard to their aid.
The motif of the elf children also inspires the author herself to write Shelterwood. In the Author’s Note, Wingate describes stumbling across an old newspaper article about “elf children” that live in the trunk of a tree. Intrigued by this description, she began researching to the concept that would evolve into the premise for Shelterwood. Within the novel, the evocative, otherworldly motif of the elf children symbolizes all the wayward children that society doesn’t know what to do with. The elf children are therefore a fantastical depiction created by a collective subconscious and born of the knowledge that young children are being displaced and neglected. Speaking through Olive’s voice, the author summarizes this concept in Chapter 22, stating:
Maybe the reason people call them [elf children] is…if something ain’t real, meaning it ain’t flesh and blood, then it won’t need anybody to feed it, or put a roof over its head, or buy it some shoes in the winter. Then nobody feels bad that they didn’t do those things. I think that’s why folks tell such tales (214).
The motif of the elf children, the “wild things” with “all-black shiny eyeballs” who “know where the water runs and where the forage is” embodies the complexity of Children’s Resilience Amidst Adversity (54-56). On one hand, the elf children are depicted as belonging in the woods, and such a lifestyle might even be a charming childhood fantasy. However, the reality of life as “elf children” reveals that such individuals are in fact denied the protection and comfort that many children enjoy and are struggling to survive amidst dire circumstances.
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By Lisa Wingate
