Symbolism and Imagery in Boyle's "The Love of My Life"

Introduction: A Modern Tragedy

Were it a dramatic work, T. Coraghessan Boyle's short story The Love of My Life would certainly classify as a tragedy. The gripping tale of a pair of teenage lovers on the cusp of adulthood abruptly losing all of the promise of their future to imprisonment — due to the murder of their unwanted child — has several elements aligned with those upon which conventional Greek tragedies are based. Surprisingly, the author is decidedly removed from emotional involvement in this particular story and takes great pains to portray events, sometimes narrated by the female protagonist China Berkowitz and sometimes by her lover Jeremy, in a non-partisan, neutral tone. Still, Boyle uses a plethora of literary devices to supplement the dialogue and narration that drives the bulk of the story. The author employs elements of foreshadowing, symbolism, and imagery to navigate this tragic tale, all of which substantially add to the drama upon which the plot is built.

One of the common motifs prevalent throughout The Love of My Life is Boyle's use of nature to typify and even amplify the emotions which the two principal characters feel. The author uses the conventional symbolism associated with natural settings such as Spring and Winter to emphasize the emotional highs and lows, respectively, which the characters endure during these times of year. At the onset of the story, when Jeremy and China are deliciously enraptured with one another, Boyle employs a fair amount of imagery associated with Spring to indicate that the love which bonds the pair is fertile and growing. This can most readily be demonstrated in the following quotation:

Spring Imagery and the Fertility of New Love

"It was an early spring that year, the world gone green overnight, the thermometer twice hitting the low eighties in the first week of March… The whole school… smelled of fresh-mowed grass and the unfolding blossoms of the fruit trees… (p. 2)."

The relation of this quotation to a vernal atmosphere is fairly transparent: on the literal level of interpretation, it employs imagery of warm temperatures and green grass. Yet on the figurative level of literary interpretation, this quotation takes on an additional layer of emphasis. Spring is the time when nature and natural things grow. In the story, it is the time when the two characters vacation at a lake in the Catskills and Jeremy impregnates China. So while the author is literally describing a verdant atmosphere, he is also figuratively foreshadowing the growth and fostering of life within China.

Nature is also used by Boyle to foreshadow the termination of the bliss enjoyed by the teenage lovers — a termination that the ensuing pregnancy will bring about. While on their vacation in the Catskills, the author notes that the five-day venture is supposed to be filled with sunny, spring-like days. However, around the time that Jeremy and China have unprotected sex, which leads to her pregnancy, an ominous, foreboding rainstorm interrupts the halcyon atmosphere, as the following quotation effectively evidences:

Foreshadowing Through the Storm

"The rain, of course. It came midway through the third day, clouds the color of iron filings, the lake hammered to iron too, and the storm that crashed through the trees and beat at their tent with a thousand angry fists (p. 4)."

This quotation is all the more salient because in the subsequent paragraph the author mentions that the lovers have neglected to bring sufficient protection. The imagery of the angry fists and the grey storm ravaging the trees foreshadows the consequences of such neglect, transforming the natural setting into a warning the characters fail to heed.

Conclusion: Nature, Death, and the Greek Tragic Form

"By eight, the rain had turned to ice and every branch of every tree was coated with it, the highway littered with glistening black sticks, no moon, no stars, the tires sliding out from under her… (p. 6)."

Literally, Winter is the time of year typified by cold, a lack of life, and the death of natural things such as flowers, trees, and other verdure. The images of ice-covered trees and a sky besotted with clouds obscuring the stars and other celestial objects certainly reinforce this notion. Yet on the figurative level, this imagery alludes to the death of the characters — the death of the life which China is about to bear, and a similar death to the love, hope, and future they had planned together. All of this is brought to an end by their ensuing arrest, imprisonment, and China's alleged testimony against Jeremy. Boyle foreshadows all of these different outcomes by utilizing elements of nature, much as he does throughout the duration of the story.

The author of The Love of My Life employs a variety of imagery pertinent to nature — specifically the seasons of Spring and Winter — to foreshadow the bulk of the major events which take place in this short story. The imagery used magnifies both the levity and the austerity of the plot elements the characters endure. The life of nature and its death, as well as the life which the characters bear and the death of that life, can all be seen in the imagery of these different seasons. One of the essential elements in a Greek tragedy, of course, is death, and to that end Boyle's work certainly qualifies as one. Whether or not China actually testifies against Jeremy at the story's conclusion, however, may be alluded to by the fact that she still regards him as the love of her life.