Penitence

Visual art is one of this novel’s key motifs. Both Angie and Nora are gifted artists, and artistic ability is an important aspect of each character’s identity. It also becomes a useful coping mechanism and part of the healing process. Both Angie and Nora turn to art at various points to cope with stress and process difficult situations. Visual art becomes one of the ways that Kristin Koval explores both the complexity of familial relationships and The Complex Nature of Guilt and Forgiveness. Angie’s ability to forgive Nora comes after her lies and deception come to light, and she must examine herself in a more nuanced and realistic light. She realizes that she has both good and bad qualities and that her worst decisions do not entirely define her as a person. This allows her to, in turn, forgive Nora: Nora is also a mixture of positive and negative qualities, and she should not have to be defined by her worst moment.

One of Angie’s positives is her artistic ability and the years that she spent as a teacher, bringing art into children’s lives. Nora also loves art, and her artistic ability is as large a part of her identity as it is Angie’s. Their shared interest in art as a form of self-expression, meditation, and healing becomes one of the primary ways that the two reconnect. Through art, Angie learns to forgive herself and to forgive her daughter. At the end of the novel, Angie opens an art café in town but also hopes to obtain a volunteer position teaching art to incarcerated youth. Now that she understands identity in a more complex and nuanced way, she sees that the girls who end up in facilities like Nora’s have complicated histories and deserve respect, forgiveness, and the chance to express themselves creatively. Both Julian and Martine argue that juvenile offenders need opportunities to rehabilitate, and Angie’s proposed art program is an example of alternatives to traditional, punitive juvenile justice of which the novel is critical.