The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus

“In some corners of nature, children gain strength by eating their mothers alive. Among humans such theatrics are frowned upon. Rare is the mother who forgets the Goldfish crackers and is cannibalized in her minivan. More common is the one who devours herself.”

One of the novel’s key symbols is the octopus, which represents a self-sacrificing version of motherhood that leaves no room for the mother’s own agency or selfhood. In the prologue, an adult Pen humorously remarks that there might be no literal cannibalism between human mothers and children but insists that an erasure of self is still “common.” By beginning the novel with this sentiment and framing the story with the adult Pen’s retrospective musings, Knight indicates that the entire narrative will be steeped in a broader contemplation of motherhood and how best to approach this time-honored endeavor.

“Alice had grown early into a tall and striking young woman with the coloring and survival instinct of a lioness, while Pen, a late bloomer, had usually been the smallest and quickest in their class, with the glow-in-the-dark eyes and skittish flinch of a black house cat.”

Throughout the novel, Pen and Alice act as foils to one another. In this passage, they are both compared to felines, but while Alice is a bold “lioness,” Pen is a “black housecat” who is prone to hiding and self-effacement. As the novel progresses, Pen’s coming-of-age journey will require her to take on some of the boldness of the lioness in order to meet a new range of social and emotional challenges.

“‘Arcadia. I’m Thomasina.’ ‘Et in Arcadia ego,’ Julian said. He held the door open for her. ‘Even in Arcadia, here am I,’ he added more quietly, as she passed under his arm.”

This quotation is an allusion to Tom Stoppard’s play, “Arcadia,” as well as to the classical Latin phrase “Et in Arcadia ego.