53 pages • 1 hour read
The Simple Wild: A Novel
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Symbols & Motifs
Flowers
Flowers play a significant role in the story, serving as a prominent motif that symbolizes the cultivated beauty of nature, relationships, and growth. Susan, who deeply loves flowers, names her daughter Calla after the delicately beautiful lily. She adorns the walls of Calla’s room with the flower, representing her love for flowers and her belief that she can't grow anything in Alaska. In Toronto, Susan opens a flower shop and enjoys painting flowers. She is passionate about nature but prefers the more cultivated aesthetic of cut flowers over Alaska’s untamed flora. When Corey and Calla first started dating, he had flowers delivered to her from Susan’s shop weekly. When the flower deliveries ended, Calla realized their relationship was changing significantly. Calla buys flowers for Agnes as a hostess gift in Alaska and discovers that finding fresh-cut flowers is challenging. Her gesture signals her intent to build a relationship with Agnes, a special part of Wren’s life. For Calla, flowers represent endings and the possibility of new beginnings.
When Wren shows Calla to her room, she discovers that he’s left the walls untouched. She muses, “[T]wenty-six years ago, in a land that is unforgiving for so many things, this was her garden. And my dad has preserved it all these years” (78). Seeing the lilies is both nostalgic and reveals that Wren still loves Susan and her: a key realization for Calla. In leaving Alaska, Susan searched for a place to bloom. Yet, Calla’s growth in Toronto is stunted by her lifestyle and lingering questions about her past. Though initially feels stifled by the harsh, limiting environment, Calla soon learns that Alaska isn’t barren and is a fruitful land ripe with opportunity. Growing things isn’t easy, as the family farm down the road knows full well, but one can flourish there with the right attitude and support from others. This proves true in Calla’s relationships as well. A fatherly connection with Wren can’t spring up overnight; instead, it must be carefully tended to and, with time and patience, grow into a healthy relationship. Calla’s experiences in Alaska produce resilience. In the end, she resembles less of the delicate flower after which she is named and more of a hearty wildflower, able to thrive wherever she is planted.
Airplanes
Airplanes play a crucial role in providing access to remote and unreachable regions, offering a sense of freedom and escapism from the confines of everyday life. This independence is particularly significant for Calla, who hails from a controlled urban environment. The novel begins with a plane journey separating young Calla and her mother from Alaska and Wren. Decades later, Calla uses a plane to return to Alaska and mend her relationship with Wren. During the second leg of her journey, a miserable plane ride causes friction with Jonah, a friend and employee of Wren. However, flying with Jonah later gives Calla a new perspective of Alaska and Jonah himself. Through flying with Jonah, Calla gains insight into how planes serve as a vital lifeline for rural Alaskan communities, facilitating the transport of essential supplies and medical care and reuniting loved ones. She realizes that flying is more than just a thrill for Wren and Jonah; it is an essential means of community service.
Once a symbol of disconnect in Calla's life, airplanes now represent a pathway to connection with Wren and Jonah. Calla's initial resentment toward her father's career transforms into an understanding and respect for his love of aviation after spending time at Alaska Wild. This business transcends its commercial aspect; its employees are like family. For Wren, flying is not just a job but a legacy deeply intertwined with his identity. This legacy becomes a point of connection and contention between him and Calla. Agnes explains that flying is "his favorite place, high up in the sky, getting away from everything he’d lost down on the ground" (169). Symbolically, Calla takes Wren’s final flight with him, and he confides in her that she will inherit the money from Wild's sale after his passing. This transformation symbolizes her acceptance of his legacy and, ultimately, of him.
Wildness
The novel’s title, The Simple Wild, encapsulates a paradox. The word “simple” implies a life free from complexity, focusing on basic needs, evoking peacefulness and tranquility, and living in harmony with nature. On the other hand, the word “wild” suggests an untamed nature, the potential for danger, unpredictability, and a lack of control. With its harsh conditions and remote locations, Alaska is anything but simple. Yet, the title suggests that Calla might find inner simplicity or peace by immersing herself in this wild environment. The untamed and rugged Alaskan wilderness symbolizes life's unpredictable and raw beauty outside urban confines. It represents a place where Calla can strip away the superficial layers of city life and experience nature in its purest form. Through her experience of embracing a new way to live, Calla learns that true simplicity is not found in material possessions but in the raw beauty and necessities of the natural world.
Through Wren’s business, Alaska Wild, Calla sees firsthand the raw unpredictability of Alaskan life. Violently changeable weather and rough terrain make flying airplanes daily for a living an adventurous yet dangerous prospect. Jonah, Wild’s best pilot, embodies Alaska’s uncultivated spirit. With his untamed hair, beard, and gruff demeanor, Calla first sees Jonah as more beastly than beauteous. In her second interaction with him, she looks closer at his face and thinks, “He looks a bit less wild and unappealing” (158). The more she gets to know Jonah, the less his “yeti-like” look repulses her and the more it attracts her. Drawing on his strength and love for the land and its people, Calla falls for Jonah as he teaches her the satisfaction of a simpler yet more adventurous life.
Calla’s shifting feelings toward Jonah’s nature symbolize her evolving relationship with Alaska. What she once judged as primitive and uncivilized, she now respects for its natural beauty, the authenticity of its people, and its unembellished lifestyle. The simplicity of the wild brings clarity and insight into her lifestyle and relationships, particularly with Wren. Wren's and Jonah’s honesty and lack of pretense drive Calla to confront her feelings and expectations, resulting in a tense but ultimately therapeutic reconciliation. Alaska's physical wildness necessitates resilience, flexibility, and a degree of surrender to nature and life’s unpredictable forces. Calla gains a more profound respect for the wild and its inherent beauty and danger due to her experiences, which include navigating the harsh landscape, dealing with unexpected weather, and embracing an unfussy lifestyle. The wilderness ultimately pushes Calla out of her comfort zone and forces her to confront her anxieties and misunderstandings about the environment and its people—embracing a lifestyle that is simultaneously simple and wild.
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