46 pages • 1 hour read
Lapvona
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Symbols & Motifs
Self-Flagellation
Content Warning: This section includes references of child abuse and cannibalism.
In the world of Lapvona, many of the characters experience Suffering As Salvation. Their lives are already full of suffering, which they rationalize by equating it with holiness. This is particularly showcased through the motif of self-flagellation, which Jude and Marek practice every Sunday as a religious observance. When Marek first goes to the manor, he tries to hurt himself with a shoe, but Lispeth stops and chides him. No self-flagellation occurs at the manor because their lives are relatively comfortable and easy; there is no psychological need to explain away hardship.
Water
The water motif develops The Dichotomy Between Wealth and Poverty. When the entire village suffers a terrible drought and subsequent crop failure, over half the villagers die and many others resort to cannibalism to survive. At the manor, however, there is no shortage at all. Villiam’s reservoir of water, which he collects from mountain glaciers and hoards, symbolizes the power imbalance between the manor and the village. Villiam and Father Barnabas go night-swimming in the reservoir, enjoying the water in excess like spoiled children. Thus, water shows how wealth can insulate one from even natural disasters, often at others’ expense.
When Ivan’s men tear down the church after the deaths of Father Barnabas and Villiam, they use the stones to build a well in the middle of the village. What once was a structure used to manipulate and control the villagers becomes one that gives life and sustenance. Nevertheless, Grigor notes that the lack of a church has created a noticeable communal absence, suggesting the extent to which the villagers embraced their subjugation. Grigor is one of the only characters who sees through the self-serving ideology of Father Barnabas and Villiam, but even he feels regret in this moment.
Ina’s Breasts
Ina nurses various people at her breasts, which symbolize the strength and power of womanhood. Despite her age and childlessness, she magically begins producing milk just in time to aid the village during a crisis; even after her milk dries up, she still invites Marek, Jude, and Grigor to suckle at her breasts. Though she is sustaining others, the act also empowers Ina, giving her fleeting moments of sight. This miraculous occurrence links Ina’s breasts and womanhood to the divine; metaphorically, it is nursing that allows her to see the world in a way that others don’t. At the end of the novel, Ina has fully recovered her sight, aged backward, and begun to produce milk again, claiming the Christ Child is actually hers. By opening her heart to divinity, Ina has transcended human limitations and gained supernatural power.
Ina’s milk is also a source of social power that allows her to reintegrate into village life. This is all the more striking given how disempowered the novel’s other female characters are by their physicality. Agata in particular is consistently at the mercy of her body and the men who desire it for sex, childbearing, or both, making her a foil to Ina.
Lambs
Jude’s lambs are a complex motif related to the novel’s depiction of religion, suffering, and purity. Christianity commonly likens Jesus to a lamb—a sacrificial innocent—and Lapvona’s cover image underscores this association, featuring a bound and haloed lamb. That Jude refers to the lambs as his “babes” likewise suggests the parallel, particularly given how heavily the supposed Christ Child will later feature.
This, however, is where the correspondences end. Unlike the Christian God, Jude refuses to sacrifice his lamb(s) to save humanity—in this case, the other villagers, who beg him to let them eat the lambs during the summer drought. The lambs ultimately die regardless, but their suffering is pointless, helping no one. The cannibalism that Jude engages in drives home the message. In their association with Jesus, the lambs would have served a eucharist-like purpose. Instead, the idea of eating Jesus’s flesh gives way to Jude literally consuming Klim, whom he even compares to Jesus: “Klim’s body felt like an effigy, something that could be put down and looked at, a sculpture of a man, like Jesus on the Cross. Maybe Jude could take Klim as his own personal Jesus” (116-17).
Similarly, the novel identifies Marek with the lambs, setting him up to be a Christ figure. Marek certainly seems to conflate Jude, the only father he knows, with God the Father, as he hopes to please both with his suffering. Like the death of the lambs, however, Marek’s abuse at Jude’s hands serves no purpose, and Marek himself is not innocent. His murder of Jacob recalls the story of Cain and Abel, and his implied murder of his sibling does so even more explicitly. This subversion of Christian imagery reflects a society that views suffering not only as normal but as an end in and of itself.
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