NOS4A2

The Tuff Rider is Vic’s bicycle when she is a child. It has obvious connotations regarding Vic’s toughness and grit. Initially, it is a birthday present from her father. As the relationship between her parents worsens, the bicycle becomes a symbol of her need to escape from her reality. However, the bike also represents the reality of the inscapes, which includes the darkest parts of the alternate realities, including Christmasland. It also represents Vic’s desire to escape from herself: “[I]t was fast enough and powerful enough to race her away from the worst part of herself, the part that tried to make sense of things” (462). It is mobile, which helps her to stay moving when she feels suffocated in one place.

The bike evolves into a motorcycle—the Triumph—as Vic grows up. Triumph serves the same function as the Tuff Rider, transporting her to the Shorter Way Bridge. The Triumph connotes victory, and it is a major part of Manx’s defeat. When the novel concludes, Wayne hears a motorcycle in the distance. He associates the sound with his mother’s love for him, and for the thrill of the road, ending the story by using the motorcycle as a final representation of hope for his future.