The Light Pirate

In the novel’s final section, Brooks-Dalton weaves Wanda’s story back and forth through time, gradually unfolding the circumstances around Phyllis’s death and its implications for Wanda and Bird Dog’s relationship. The protagonist’s connection with nature remains a key focus of the plot and themes. In Chapter 55, storms reappear as a motif for the theme of The Beauty and Violence of Nature. Although they are generally associated with the latter rather than the former, there is beauty in the way that the hurricanes heal Wanda’s loneliness and listlessness as she finds herself again in “that rhythm of preparation, endurance, recovery” (281). Indeed, the connection between Wanda and her environment is so strong that Phyllis observes, “Wanda not only understood her ecosystem, she was a part of it” (283). Life in the flooded landscape that once was Rudder is far from easy, but Wanda is uniquely qualified to meet these demands.

The break-in in Chapter 57 has a lasting impact on the main character and her relationships. Developing the theme of Survival and Adaptation, the protagonist kills Corey and his father to protect herself and Phyllis. This is the first time that Wanda has taken human life, and it challenges her sense of self. Phyllis sees the violence as a necessary act required by their circumstances, and she is reassured by her conviction that Wanda “would become whatever this place needed her to be” (303). Phyllis also feels that she herself must adapt and that burning their beloved home is a key part of that: “She wanted to explain that it was the ideas woven into the siding and the shingles and the door frames that needed to go, that sometimes humans need to see change, to literalize it” (305). Since Part 1, the blue house has served as a motif for survival and adaptation. The final lesson the house offers about survival is the necessity of leaving it behind and learning a new way of life in which walls and doors do not stand between humans and nature.

Relocating into the swamp brings Wanda and Phyllis even closer to nature in all its beauty and violence. As Phyllis’s memories fade, she becomes more attuned to the natural wonders around her. In Chapter 59, she observes that some plants have died out in the lagoon and notes that others are flourishing: “It was, in many ways, a hopeful place” (321). Likewise, Phyllis sees hope when she sees how Wanda has grown: “But here was this woman—brave and ruthless and tender all at once” (234). This multifaceted description of the protagonist shows that she, like nature, is capable of both moving beauty and deadly violence.

As Phyllis’s life draws to a close, her relationship with Wanda brings the novel full circle, foregrounding the theme of Finding Family and Community. Wanda takes on the majority of the work needed to keep the pair alive after they move into the swamp. Like her parents, she is a builder and a fixer. Brooks-Dalton emphasizes how the story has come full circle by having the protagonist utilize materials from the house she was born in to construct the new shelter. Advancing the theme of survival, Wanda and Phyllis adapt to the blistering daytime temperatures by becoming nocturnal, a change that makes Wanda’s ability to communicate with the sentient lights all the more valuable. Despite their great usefulness, Phyllis’s defensive outburst in Chapter 59 dampens Wanda’s relationship with the lights. The harsh words are spoken in a moment of fear and vulnerability, and they carry the “horrifying insinuation that the intruders had been Wanda’s fault” (328). Wanda internalizes that guilt, which explains why she refuses to illuminate the water in Chapter 58 and flees after Bird Dog asks her to do so. As Chapter 59 continues and Phyllis’s memories fade, Wanda becomes her guardian’s guardian, patiently caring for and protecting the woman who sheltered her and taught her so much. At the end of the chapter, Wanda reassures Phyllis by telling her that she’s in the field, echoing what Phyllis told her the first afternoon they spent together. This poignant word choice reminds the reader of how much they have shared and how the two characters have become a family since that day.

Wanda’s relationship with Bird Dog draws the cautious protagonist out of the isolation she experiences after losing Phyllis. After the deaths of her brother and father, Bird Dog finds a kind and close-knit community, one she wishes to share with Wanda. The lights share this wish, as evidenced by the whispers that Wanda hears at the end of Chapter 56, “Help them. [...] Let them help you back” (294). Before Wanda can allow herself to accept this companionship, she must first forgive Bird Dog and receive absolution in return. The women reconcile and let go of the guilt and blame they both carried from the break-in in Chapter 58. However, Wanda’s survival instincts take control and force her to flee from Bird Dog for a second time. Confronting the dissonance between her need to survive and her need for family brings her to tears: “It isn’t enough to be alive after all these years. There is a deficit here that she is unable to reconcile” (320). The novel’s major themes clash in Wanda’s deeply rooted internal conflict, and she struggles to find a solution to her dilemma.

The novel ends the way it began, with a hurricane. The climax in Chapter 60 brings the story full circle, and Brooks-Dalton emphasizes this through her use of birth imagery: “Curled like a child in the womb of her canoe, the water cupping her like amniotic fluid, she squeezes her eyes shut and wonders if this is the end” (335). Just as Wanda was born into her biological family during the hurricane that is her namesake, so the protagonist is reborn into a new family through this storm. Wanda and Bird Dog find each other again thanks to the hurricane and the lights, connecting to the theme of the beauty and violence of nature. In a major development for their relationship, Wanda decides not to run anymore, and the women share their first kiss. Fulfilling the lights’ plea for her to let Bird Dog’s community help her and to help them in return, Wanda guides them all home, “a word she hasn’t used in a long time” (339).

In the brief but triumphant Part 4, an elderly Wanda is surrounded by her found family and nature’s beauty. Where once she viewed other people with trepidation, Wanda now hopes that the light will guide more people to her growing community. The theme of survival and adaptation advances with the revelation that more children are born with extraordinary abilities similar to Wanda’s: “They do not call these gifts magic and they do not call them science. They call them what they are: change” (343). As a further testament to the community’s survival, the light chooses a new keeper as the end of Wanda’s life approaches. Because Wanda bravely opens her heart and her home despite the grief and fear she suffered, she finds love and ensures that her community will thrive long after she is gone.