Themes in Chian of Hearts

 

Guilt

How are we positioned to understand guilt is very strong and powerful?

Plot:

Geraldine, Fran and Sophie are all weighed down by guilt. Part of the reason Fran accepted Sophie (whom she didn't want) was through guilt. Sophie felt responsible for Mai's death as she was driving the car that crashed.

Geraldine feels guilty for accidentally leaving her heater on (caused fire) and she feels partly guilty for Sophie's revolt Jimmy may feel guilt as he did not realise that Blue was going to kill himself.

 

Characterisation:

Every character is portrayed as feeling some sense of guilt Each character is weighed down/burdened in some way by this Each characters guilt links to another's and it all ties together throughout the story

Multiple Voices:

We can learn from others the reason of certain characters guilt (eg. We learn from Geraldine that Fran was cheating on Daniel) We can learn from another's point of view the extent of guilt a character is feeling

 

Change

The readers understanding of change develops throughout the novel through the events and characterization that happens with Sophie. Change can come in many different ways. It can be mental, physical, or an unexpected event, which is shown throughout the novel where Geraldine describes physical change in Sophie in a letter to Fran:“You will have noticed the huge weight gain?” (p.113). In the same letter, Geraldine also mentions to Fran that “if she remains unchanged…(i.e. if she becomes impossible fro you too), then we’ve decided to have her hospitalized…” (p. 114).  Here readers can see the state that Sophie was in before she went to Fran’s house, compared to the change in her after her stay with Fran. This is event in the novel where Fran describes Sophie as, “The girl is coming alive before my eyes”. Change is a major theme throughout the book and helps to create a better understanding of the characters development over time. 

 

 

FORGIVENESS

Forgiveness is a very important characteristic in life as it is the ability to be able to move on from negative experiences with another person or group of people. This is shown in the novel Chain Of Hearts through the plot by going through many problems and hatred between family members. Being able to mend their situations and become a family again, the characters in Chain Of Hearts relationships mend to be something that is not the same as once before, but can grow into something better.

Characterization is a major technique used by the author in this novel to portray the theme of forgiveness. Through the characters of Geraldine and Fran the reader sees a broken relationship full of hate, guilt and lying turn into something that is not the same as what it was but better in many means. Throughout the novel the reader discovers the different events that occur between Fran and Geraldine’s relationship that impact it greatly. Then towards then end the reader sees these events overcame, resolved and both of the characters forgiving each other to a certain extent.

 

Trust

 

Geraldine trusts Fran to look after her daughter but she does not trust Fran when it come to other family matters or relationships. Geraldine knows Fran will look after Sophie but she still does not trust her relationship with her after Fran started seeing Paul. The use of multiple voices shows different perspectives to stories that can also display the issues of trust between characters. The dialogue never says “I don’t trust you” but through the use of flashbacks the characters share stories from when their trust has been broken. Characters also use very strong emotive language when talking about these experiences. An example of this is when Paul calls of the wedding with Geraldine. Geraldine loses all the trust she had for her ex-fiancée, who was someone she was meant to be able to trust with her life.  Another example of trust is Sophie’s relationship with her teacher Mr Schmidt. She trusts him to talk about her problems and trusts his advice. On page 9 Sophie refuses to get help from anyone but it say’s “There was one fellow she agreed to see…” This demonstrates a relationship with trust.

  Geraldine trusts Fran enough to give her daughter to her to take care of her for a certain period of time.         ‘Thankyou for agreeing to have her, Fran’ (Pg114)

    Sophie trusts Fran enough to agree to go live at her house.

    Fran trusts Amy enough to tell Amy her secrets and talk about everything.

‘But Amy, of course, understood’ (pg 96)

·           Jimmy and Fran trust each other.

·          Sophie trusts Minh.

·         Mai and Minh trust Sophie. 

·         Trust can be lost (Fran, Paul & Geraldine).

·        Sophie trusts her mother, then she loses her trust in her mother and begins to feel forms of hatred towards her.

·       Trust can be broken, it can be developed and can easily damage a relationship.

Acceptance

·      Acceptance occurs a lot throughout the novel because each character is slowly     accepting each other even though all of them are different to one another. Fran soon learns to accept Sophie by who she is.

·      Fran and Geraldine slowly learn to accept each other.

·      Fran soon learns and accepts Sophie even though she has had her problems.

·      “I’ve been waiting for you to come. What took you so long?” (pg. 389) This shows that Mihn has accepted Sophie in the end.