46 pages • 1 hour read
Russell BanksThe Sweet Hereafter
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1991A 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 Sweet Hereafter
The title of the novel suggests that death, in whatever form, brings a kind of sweetness. The survivors of the accident live in some version of the “sweet hereafter” that is similar to purgatory, a kind of quasi-death. The novel suggests, in various ways, that death is a form of release or escape from the uncertainty and grief of life. Ansel repeatedly wishes that he could join his wife, Lydia, and children in death. The title can also be taken to mean that the kind of death experienced by Nichole and Dolores, a living death, has sweetness too, perhaps in the form of a real and honest relationship to responsibility for one’s own life. This experience and knowledge alienates Nichole, Dolores, and Ansel from everyone else, but it also brings them out of denial and into a closer, truer understanding of grief and death.
The Lawsuit
The lawsuit appears to represent the amalgamation of the parents’ misdirected efforts to take action, apportion blame, and reach closure. Several characters, including Nichole, Abbott, and Ansel push back against and reject the lawsuit. These characters contend that no one is necessarily to blame for the accident. Ansel further asserts that the lawsuit will not give anyone peace or closure. Stephens admits this in his own chapter, when he says parents gain little from the litigation process. In a way, he is using the parents of the deceased to try to punish bad actors. The anger that drives Stephens comes in large part from his daughter Zoe, who is a drug addict. Notably, Banks does not present the perspective of any parent or person involved in the accident who feels favorably toward the lawsuit. Only Stephens himself, who has mixed motivations and emotional baggage from the figurative loss of his daughter, thinks the lawsuit should go forward. As Ansel says in the final pages of the book, Nichole is a hero because she saves the town from all the lawsuits. The novel suggests that, at least in this case, apportioning blame through the legal system does not result in “justice,” or remedy the harms that have occurred.
Mind Versus Body
Dolores describes Abbott as being wise because, through the stroke which leaves him partially paralyzed, he passes close to death. She also says their relationship has changed and that after his stroke, she now knows and loves his mind. The stroke almost seems to empower Abbott, who can stare at people and force them into confessions. She describes the stroke as requiring him to choose his words carefully, like a poet, which allows him to speak concisely and with considerable meaning. Dolores comes to realize that it’s Abbott’s “mind that takes care of [Dolores], not his body” (231).
Similarly, Nichole gains confidence and power after the accident disables her physically. She uses the sexual abuse she has suffered as a tool to control and manipulate her father. She begins reading more and developing her own mind. She also acts for herself and stands up to her parents. She lies at the deposition, which destroys, in one stroke, all of the lawsuits of the people of her town.
Banks appears to suggest that our focus on our physical bodies obscures the more central part of ourselves: our minds. He also suggests that stripping away the body, or rather limiting its effectiveness, forces a person to turn inward and makes them more independent.
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By Russell Banks
