71 pages • 2 hours read
Kim LiggettThe Grace Year
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2019A 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 Grace Year
The book’s titular event symbolizes multiple concepts, but the most prominent is female puberty. It is seen as shameful, something that “no one speaks of” (1), which mirrors even modern-day attitudes around puberty and menstruation. The grace year girls are blatantly sexualized by the men in the county, and the poachers who come for the girls represent real-life predators of young women. The pettiness, jealousy, and violence seen amongst the girls of the grace year are borne out of internalized misogyny and misinformation, much of which are used to uphold a culture that demands wifely purity. Even the idea that the girls must purge themselves of “magic” coincides with the widespread opinion that menstruation is something dirty and impure.
The grace year carries an intense air of secrecy. No one is allowed to talk about it, and there is no warning from the older generations. Garner County is divided into two groups of women: those who know about the Grace Year because they have lived it and those who are unaware of what lies ahead for them. Although Tierney stands for rebellion, this is one tradition she does not break: Even after everything she’s been through, Tierney never tells Michael about what happened during the grace year because it “doesn’t belong to him” (397). This coincides with the idea of shared sisterhood surrounding female puberty: that women feel most comfortable being honest with each other because they are the only ones who truly understand what they are going through.
The grace year also represents generational trauma. If a grace year girl’s body goes missing, her younger sisters will “bear the brunt of [her] shame and be banished to the outskirts” (47). When Tierney and the other girls arrive in the encampment, they find all the supplies burned, and Kiersten argues that they must do the same before they leave the camp. According to Kiersten, every group must struggle in order to be cleansed of their magic, which is an attitude that has been upheld for many years. The culture of the grace year centers on suffering, and it doesn’t stop when the grace year is over: The cycle simply continues with pain and trauma in an infinite loop, following girls and families for generations. At the end of the book, Tierney learns of an underground resistance movement, which many members of the community are a part of: This helps her realize that the bonds of sisterhood formed during the grace year are the true magic and that there is hope for the future because of them.
Ribbons
Cults and other authoritarian units of society often use clothing to establish order and control over their subjects. In Garner County, women are required to wear their hair braided back—by keeping their hair out of their faces, the belief is that “the women won’t be able to hide anything from them—a snide expression, a wandering eye, or a flash of magic” (10). Along with the braid comes the compulsory ribbon, which changes color throughout the women’s lives. Young girls wear white ribbons to signify their innocence and purity: the idea being that young girls are still children and they do not have to grapple with their “sinful” nature as women yet. Grace year girls wear red ribbons to represent their sexual maturity. Red is commonly used as the color of passion, and in this case, it is “the color of warning…of sin” (10). Once a woman is married and becomes a wife, her red ribbon is exchanged for a black one to signify death: She will be a wife and serve her husband, her family, and the county until she dies. Black also represents the death of freedom and personal identity that comes with marriage in Garner County. No matter a woman’s station in life, her ribbon is a heavy symbol of her place in the county.
In the encampment, the ribbons take on a new meaning. When Kiersten declares that she has embraced her magic, she pulls the red ribbon from her hair and establishes a new rule: “Only girls who’ve claimed their magic can remove their braid” (110). From this moment on, the ribbon doesn’t just represent sin: It signifies the social constraints that are placed on young girls. By removing the ribbon, Kiersten claims that the girls are getting closer to being purified women, but really, it means submitting to Kiersten’s authoritarian rule. Girls remove their ribbons not only to “claim their magic,” as Kiersten states, but also to demonstrate their submission to her will and her tyrannical behavior.
Tierney clings to her braid and her ribbon, even in exile. She removes her ribbon for the first time when she and Ryker make love, which signifies a break from “the last confine the county holds over [her]” (275). Like the other girls, Tierney craves community and belonging. Instead of removing her ribbon for Kiersten out of fear, however, she removes it out of love and acceptance with Ryker. Later, Tierney ties her ribbon to the punishment tree to signify a vital part of herself that she is leaving behind to die in the camp. The ribbon represents convention and tradition, and Tierney will no longer submit to these ideas.
As Tierney lays dying on her bed at the end of the novel, her mother “releas[es] [her] from the black ribbon. And everything it means” (403). Only when death approaches is Tierney finally free from the control of the county and her status as a wife. She is finally viewed purely as a human being, worthy of autonomy and respect.
The Girls’ Magic
The “magic” of the grace year girls commands center stage in this psychological thriller. The magic cannot be proven, and therefore cannot be disproven, and Liggett utilizes this fact to maintain an air of suspense throughout the novel.
The fear of magic has a chokehold on Garner County. The magic represents feminine nature, the ability to use one’s beauty and feminine charms to “influence” others (intentionally or not), and the men of Garner County see this as a threat. However, women are also desired and valued, which speaks to the duality of femininity: Men are both attracted to and despise women. Tierney notes that the men tend to speak of the magic “when it’s convenient for them” (16), like when Mr. Fallow accuses his own wife of “harboring [her] magic” so she would be executed and he could remarry a younger woman (38). Similarly, Hans and Anders use “magic” to excuse their own behaviors; they both accuse Tierney of using her magic for seduction.
Similarly, the girls are taught to despise the magic. For them, magic represents Inner Evil and Going Wild. Kiersten reminds the girls of the story of Eve, the biblical figure often blamed for the imperfection of the world. In the county, Eve is believed to be one of the first grace year girls; she “laughed in the face of God” and “held on to her magic” (146), which led to the destruction of mankind. Kiersten encourages the girls to burn through their magic so they can come home to Garner Country and become “purified women” who take their rightful place in society.
Despite the heavy implications of sin, the girls become giddy and excited at the thought of having the magic during the grace year. Kiersten and the other girls view magic as power and the grace year as their one opportunity to act in ways that would otherwise get them murdered or condemned. Even Tierney “long[s] to be full of dangerous magic” when Father Edmonds ogles her and Tommy Pearson laughs at her (22). When a poacher corners Tierney, she wonders why her magic isn’t saving her, showing that a part of her believes in the magic despite her insistence on remaining logical. As she watches the other girls run wild, Tierney comes to understand why they are filled with this “[l]onging to be filled with something bigger than [themselves]” (151). In a society where the girls are stripped of their freedom from birth, the idea of some innate ability is the only hope of power they have. The excuse of magic allows them to act out on their suppressed emotions, particularly rage and violence.
Although magic is primarily tied to themes of evil and oppression, it is also intrinsically tied to love. Michael claims that Tierney’s magic is how he was able to have a child with her, and he tells his father in front of the entire town that if he doesn’t accept this explanation, “what [he’s] really saying is that the magic isn’t real” (377). He does this out of love for her, even though he is hurt by the fact that she slept with someone else. Similarly, magic is repeatedly referenced regarding motherhood. Tierney’s mother tells her that childbirth is “the real magic” (220), and Tierney herself realizes that love—for Ryker, for Michael, and especially for her daughter—is the strongest source of power, of magic, around.
