Symbolism In A Northern Light

A Northern Light

Everyone has dealt with hope. They’ve either had it, or they didn’t. Whether they had hoped to get a job they wanted, hoped to get into a good college, or as simple as hoping to get good grades. Hope is something that is available for everyone, it's just a matter if they believe in it. Hope is sometimes a last resort for people. They have already lost so much that the only thing they can do is hope. They hope for a better future, and for everything to get better. Mattie Gokey’s last resort is hope. She has already lost so much, more than a sixteen year old should. Her mom died of cancer, which left her in the mother role for her younger sisters. Soon after Ma died, her older brother Lawton left. When he left, she then became the oldest which put a lot more responsibilities on her. Mattie then gets accepted into Barnard, a college in New York City. Mattir is faced with many challenges through the novel, testing her hope. Jennifer Donnelly is saying that having hope can lead to

Throughout the novel Mattie faces a decision of whether or not she should break her mother's promise. When Ma died, Mattie made a promise to stay and take care of her younger siblings. “As I turned to go, I nearly trod on the body of a young robin half hidden in the grass. Its wings were twisted and bent. Its body stiff and bloodied. A hawks work, I thought, wondering if the robin had seen the brilliant blue of the sky and felt the sun on its back before its wings were broken” (211). This symbolises Mattie greatly. Mattie is symbolized as the Robin and her mom is the Hawk. Since Mattie is a Robin, she's supposed to spread her wings and go out into the world. The Hawk represents the promise that she made to her mom. To stay and watch her younger siblings while helping out on the farm. Mattie realizes that without hope for the future, she could actually become the