Gift From The Sea

The channelled whelk is an empty shell that is deserted first by the whelk that inhabited it and then by a hermit crab, its second occupant. As Lindbergh says, “It is simple; it is bare, it is beautiful” (27). The channelled whelk symbolizes the importance of simple living and “the ideal of a simplified life” (41). Lindbergh contrasts it with the complexity and clutter of her own life and that of many people who live in the suburbs. The shell shows that beauty and tranquility are to be found not in having more possessions or attachments, but in having fewer of them. By attempting to live in a simpler way and dispensing with modern technologies and comforts, such as cars, telephones, and televisions, people become more attuned to themselves and their immediate surroundings. Thus, they are able to access a deeper contentment. Relatedly, the shell symbolizes the possibility of change. The channeled whelk shows that “one is free, like the hermit crab, to change one’s shell” (42). One can abandon, or at least question, tired or unfulfilling ways of life. People need not feel locked into a pattern of living simply because it is what they have done before. Such questioning, suggests Lindbergh, is a necessary prelude to spiritual growth and, metaphorically, finding a new shell.

Lindbergh says that the moon shell possesses “a perfect spiral, winding inward to the pinpoint center of the shell, the tiny dark core of the apex, the pupil of the eye” (47). This eye reminds her first of the moon in the sky and then of the eye of a cat at night. Both images, like that of an island surrounded by waves, suggest something bright and aware surrounded by emptiness. Thus, the moon shell in Gift from the Sea symbolizes solitude. It also symbolizes, as with these other images, something “serene” (7), vivid, and natural. This is not a type of solitude that is unnatural, dull, or burdensome. Rather, the moon shell represents the sense of solitude as important and enriching to the individual. It symbolizes the idea of solitude as a natural part of human life that can all too easily be blotted out, like the moon or the mysterious cat's eye, by excessive light or noise from others.

These images and that of the island suggest a connection between solitude and stillness. The cat waits, poised, and the moon sits unmoving in the sky. They and the moon shell symbolize the immediate temporal quality of solitude. In solitude, as Lindbergh says, “The past and the future are cut off” (48). Detached from others, people are also distanced from socially structured plans for the future and connections to the past. Instead, they are thrown into the overlooked immediacy and purity of the present. This forces them into a more focused and unalloyed awareness of their own consciousness and surroundings. It is from such focus, the symbol of the moon shell suggests, that the rejuvenating power of solitude comes.

The double-sunrise shell, says Lindbergh, has two sides that are “exactly matched” (71) and a “golden hinge binding the two together” (71). This smooth and untarnished, yet fragile, shell symbolizes the first “pure” stage of a relationship. It represents the ideal meeting between two individuals who, like the shell, complement and enclose each other perfectly. The shell symbolizes the way that, in the early stage of a relationship, nothing and nobody else matters but one’s partner. One is totally content in the other’s company and does not need or want others or anything else in the world to intrude. At this stage, the lovers may even develop their own special “language,” or way of speaking, to keep others out and guarantee the purity of their relationship.

The shell also has the appearance of two sunrises occurring together. At first glance, this appears to be a positive thing, signifying a shared sense of possibility and hope for the future. However, in Gift from the Sea it signifies the transience of this stage of a relationship. Like a sunrise, it is beautiful and pure, symbolizing the start of something that is without baggage or compromise. Yet, like the sunrise, and the day’s start, it cannot last. As Lindbergh goes on to argue, this initial purity will inevitably be tarnished by the demands and frustrations of the day. The “pure” relationship will be affected and transformed by the realities of the world and the necessity of living in it, just as the double-sunrise shell and its “fragile perfection” (71) will be damaged by contact with the waves.

In contrast to the double-sunrise shell, the oyster shell is imperfect and unsymmetrical. It is “sprawling and uneven,” with the “irregularity of something growing” (89), and it has “small shells clinging to its humped back” (89). In addition, “there are many of them on the beach” (89). For these reasons, suggests Lindbergh, the oyster shell symbolizes the middle years of a marriage. It is a relationship that long ago shed the ideal of self-enclosed purity that characterizes the double-sunrise stage. Rather, it made its compromises with reality and accepted the intrusion of practicality and time and the necessity of change. Like the oyster shell, the couple who starts a family also experiences its “shell” continually growing and gathering accretions. Children get older, new ones may arrive, and memories and possessions are accumulated.

On top of this, the oyster shell “clings tenaciously” (90) to its space on the rock. This, suggests Lindbergh, symbolizes the struggles that married couples face to establish themselves and cement their place in the world. Economic and social challenges must be overcome to provide a decent “bed” for their offspring. Likewise, this struggle forges strong bonds between a couple that are very hard to break. While the practical middle years of marriage, like the oyster shell, may seem unglamorous, they also have other advantages. As indicated by Lindbergh’s reference to the oyster “bed” rather than shell, those years of marriage provide security, comfort, and a sense of belonging.

The “argonauta”—or paper nautilus—shell is one to which the argonauta is not fastened, unlike all other beach creatures in relation to their shells. Instead, the argonauta’s shell acts as a “cradle” for the eggs of its young, which hatch and swim away upon reaching the water’s surface. After this moment, “the mother argonaut leaves her shell and starts another life” (103). Thus, the argonauta shell in Gift from the Sea symbolizes freedom and the end of the “oyster bed,” practical stage of a relationship. It symbolizes a point at which the children, around whom the practicalities of marriage were organized, have left home, as the young of the argonauta swim away. In this way, the argonauta shell represents the realization that, despite the apparent security of the oyster bed and family, family life was only temporary and can be outgrown.

Lindbergh suggests that for most people, this sudden realization that one is now without the meaning and structure provided by raising a family can be daunting. However, the nautilus “who has left its shell for the open seas” (104) symbolizes the sense in which this new period of life can be seen as an opportunity, rather than as a source of despair. The freedom that is now available without the responsibility of parenting means that individuals and couples are free to rediscover themselves and their relationship. Ideally, says Lindbergh, this freedom can lead to the development of the “argonauta” type relationship. Such a relationship is one where both partners support each other in mutual self-realization. That the argonauta shell is rare and is named after the Greek myth of Jason and the Argonauts suggests that such a relationship is not easy to obtain. Indeed, argues Lindbergh, people are unlikely to have experienced it themselves or to know anyone who has. Nevertheless, it is an enticing and beautiful ideal that gives hope for the start of middle age and the transition away from the “oyster bed” stage of life.