73 pages • 2 hours read
Ami McKayThe Birth House
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2006A 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
The Moon
References to the moon appear frequently throughout the novel. Even in an early excerpt from “A Rare Family History” reads, “The moon, seeing Annie’s sadness, began to sing,” bringing Dora’s ancestor safely home from sea (2). Dora often references the voice of the moon, which she can hear in Scots Bay, but not in Boston. As such, the moon is a symbol of connection to nature and home for Dora. It is also meaningful that, on the night of Archer’s death, there is a “full moon, clear skies” (272).
Traditionally, the moon is associated with the menstrual cycles of women, which follow a similar schedule to the waxing and waning of the moon. Therefore, there are also frequent references to the moon in relation to fertility and childbirth throughout the novel. Mothers tell their daughters that the moon’s power “turned the tides of womanhood, her voice that pulled their babies into the light of birth” (ix). It is no coincidence, then, that most of the births Dora attends as a midwife occur at night, under the gaze of the moon. When Dora is trying to become pregnant, one of the rituals she undergoes is a “moon bath.” Additionally, the inscription on the Willow Book is: “The moon owns the willow” (367).
The Virgin Mary
The Virgin Mary appears frequently as a symbol of motherhood and womanhood in the novel. Most notably, Miss B. is a devotee of Mary; even though she has certain mystical beliefs, Miss B. has great respect for Mary and references her often. In le jardin des morts, the sacred garden of the dead where Miss B. takes Dora to bury the baby Darcy, there is a tree with “the likeness of a woman carved into it…the Virgin Mary, standing on a crescent moon” (18). Miss B. insists that they take off their shoes because they “can’t let no outside world touch Mary’s ground” (19). Miss B. buries all the “lost souls” of unwanted babies and, sometimes, mothers in the garden, where “Our Lady” will watch over them, the mother to all.
As a married woman, Dora recalls that the image of “Gabriel standing winged and menacing over Mary” to tell her she would bear Christ frightened and sickened her (217). She knew that “Mary must have suffered more than anyone ever knew” when she “swallowed the spirit of the Christ child down into her belly, crying into the night, knowing He would have to die” (218). Miss B. told Dora that: “the blood you share with the Holy Mother is what sets you to achin’ like that. The same blood she shares with all women” (218). Mary’s conflict of bearing a child destined to die is the same conflict all mothers face when giving birth, as all people must die. In this way, the Virgin Mary symbolizes all mothers.
It is also significant that Mary is both a holy Virgin and a mother. In Dora’s world, a woman’s value is tied either to her purity (virginity) or to her role as a mother. This is a paradox that only the Virgin Mary can successfully embody.
The White Doe
In Scots Bay, there is a legend of a white doe that lives in the forest. Some, like Brady Ketch and his clients, hunt it as a great prize. However, most of the men “pledged never to kill it,” as to do so would amount to a sinful act (10). The open secret in the town is that Miss B. cares for the white doe and feeds it like a pet. This further emphasizes Miss B.’s almost mystical connection to nature.
However, the white doe truly symbolizes Dora’s innocence. It is white, the color of purity, and is only ever called a doe, not a deer, emphasizing its femininity. Late in the book, it is revealed that “the head of Miss B.’s beloved white doe had been stuffed and mounted” in Dr. Thomas’s house (320). In destroying the white doe, Dr. Thomas destroyed one of the last connections Dora had to Miss B. and her girlhood, just as he tried to destroy her life by accusing her of guilt in Experience Ketch’s death.
The Birth House
The eponymous birth house is a powerful symbol in the book, although most of the plot takes place before Dora converts her home into the birth house. In changing her Spider Hill home into a refuge for women, Dora is creating a safe space, built by the power of women to protect women. It symbolizes safety, support, and community, and is the culmination of Dora’s journey into independence. Like Max, she uses her emancipation to help lift other women up, showing the true strength of women united. As Dora says herself: “every woman needs a sanctuary” (366). She has the power to give them that.
Through community and the safe haven of the Birth House, Dora is also able to realize her dream of “a pretty little house, right full with babies” (364). Though she is unable to have a child of her own, she makes her own family. She adopts Wrennie and builds a huge family by delivering babies for women throughout Scots Bay.
The house also represents Dora’s strength. Built on Spider Hill, which, according to legend, was covered in spider webs on the day of her birth, it “stands on the edge of the earth” (vii). It withstands the harshness of the Bay and is described as stubborn. Dora’s father even said: “a strong house for a Rare woman” (vii). Even after Scots Bay has started to shrink and more people have the means to birth their children in hospitals, Dora and the house remain, safe and happy.
