48 pages • 1 hour read
Bones & All
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Symbols & Motifs
The Sphinx Trophy
Content Warning: This section contains graphic depictions of cannibalism and violence.
The sphinx trophy belongs to Mrs. Harmon. Her husband won it for an essay on the nature of human consciousness. When Maren sees the trophy, she thinks, “She made me want to strive for something, to earn something beautiful I could hold on to for the rest of my life” (61). For Maren, the trophy symbolizes the type of achievements that only other people can have. It also represents Mrs. Harmon’s pride for—and devotion to—her husband. The trophy eventually saves Maren’s life when she uses it to hit Sully during their fight.
The sphinx also symbolizes the enigmatic riddle of Maren’s existence. In Greek mythology, the Sphinx is a female monster with the head of a lion. When she encounters a traveler, she invites them to answer a riddle. If they fail to answer it correctly, she eats them. However, they don’t have to approach the Sphinx, and they do not have to ask her for the riddle. In this way, the trophy represents an analogy for Maren and her life: She only consumes victims who approach her first, and specifically, those who violate her boundaries. This is particularly evident in her interactions with men like Jason. She gives him a chance to leave her in the library, rather than metaphorically sealing his fate with an attempt to solve the riddle. When he fails, she eats him.
The Rope of Hair
Maren keeps mementos from the people she eats, but she takes no pleasure in doing so. Sully, on the other hand, delights in his grim keepsake: a long rope that he has made from the hair of all of his victims. He says that his main purpose in doing so is, “Makin’ somethin’ useful, somethin’ lovely, out of somethin’ that’s done and gone” (70). Sully is a liar, however, and initially claims that he only eats the dead, who don’t have to suffer at his hands. When Lee sees the rope, he says it is the most repulsive thing he has ever seen, even though he also keeps mementos of those he kills. He refers to the rope as being “Like a Frankenstein zombie Rapunzel” (274) and tells Maren, “He would have used your hair” (279).
The rope symbolizes the difference between Maren and Sully. They share a genetic heritage and an unnatural proclivity for cannibalism, but Sully’s rope is a trophy that he uses to celebrate his nature. When Maren takes a memento, it is sentimental and sad: She chooses to take reminders of things she would rather forget. The rope represents the fact that even among the eaters, there are degrees of morality and compassion, and sometimes both traits are completely absent.
The Locket
Maren takes a locket from Mrs. Harmon’s house after Mrs. Harmon dies. The locket contains a picture of Mrs. Harmon’s husband, Douglas. The locket is a remembrance, for Maren, of the kindness that Mrs. Harmon showed her. In a dream, Mrs. Harmon tells Maren, “It makes me glad to know you’ll of me whenever you wear it” (241). Mrs. Harmon wore the locket because it was a positive memento of a husband and a marriage that lasted over 50 years.
Like the other mementos Maren, Lee, and Sully take from their victims, the locket is a trophy from Mrs. Harmon, but it functions in a completely different way than the other items. After Jason compliments Maren on it and looks at Douglas’s picture, Maren never wears it again. The locket symbolizes Maren’s desire to have someone to love, and someone who loves her. Because that has not been possible, Maren realizes that she is “wearing a reminder of the love of someone else’s life” (288), which suddenly feels too artificial for her.
Saturn Devouring His Son
Maren is fascinated by Francisco Goya’s macabre painting of Saturn Devouring His Son. Saturn is the Roman name of the Greek Titan, Cronus. Cronus was disturbed by a prophecy that claimed one of his sons would eventually overthrow him and take his position. Each time Cronus had a new child, he ate it. Cannibalism may be rare and unnatural, particularly among humans, but the painting symbolizes something even more unnatural: a parent consuming their child. When Maren shows it to Lee, he says simply that it is “sick.” The painting represents Sully’s attempts to kill Maren and eat her, even though they are technically family. It also alludes to the abdication of parental responsibility that is prevalent throughout the novel. Parents are supposed to protect their children, which is not exactly how it works in Bones & All. Sully is eventually killed by Lee, which is what Saturn hoped to avoid by preemptively killing his own children.
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