The Cartographers

The Cartographers is a novel told alternately in the past and the present. Tam is largely missing from the story as a narrator and in Nell’s life; until the end of the novel, she is only present through the memories of others. One of the ways the past and present are connected is through photographs. In this way, photos symbolize not just memories but social connections, while Wally’s camera symbolizes his isolation from those he documents.

The camera is most closely associated with Wally, to the point that Rockland locals recognize Wally because of it. This connection stands as an example of both irony and foreshadowing because of the camera’s function—it is a tool that creates memories, the proof of past happenings. As Wally puts it, photos are “[p]roof that things were real” (135), so a camera is a tool for creating that proof. The camera therefore indirectly allows Nell to remember her mother, and later her father as well. However, the one person never in the photos is the photographer, who is always forgotten and isolated: the passive observer rather than the active doer.

This separation reflects Wally’s nature exactly, for even in the happiest period of the Cartographers’ history, he was quiet, an observer rather than a participant. He was often forgotten because he stayed in the shadows, which helped him during his obsessive search for Agloe maps but also closed him off from the Cartographer community and its related drama. Wally loved Nell but could not accept her as a replacement for Tam; he had no romance but was happy to manipulate Francis’s affair to Wally’s advantage. Rather than supporting Bear in the face of his financial ruin, Wally viewed the theft of the map as a betrayal. In all these memories, Wally is both unhappy and isolated; though he helped create them, he is never truly a part of them. Instead, he either rejects or poisons the connections they represent until he is left utterly alone by his own choices, just as the photographer is separated from the photograph by the camera. He engineers the creation of the image but can never be part of the tableau.

In contrast, the photographs themselves symbolize community and connections, for better or worse. Humans are social creatures, with all the pros and cons society entails, and the photographs capture that. Nell loses both her parents but remembers them via the photographs that Wally took. The Cartographers become strangers after the fire but reconnect after the Junk Box Incident; the Sanborn map is accompanied by a photo as well. A photograph is also how Nell realizes that Humphrey is Bear. And even though Tam is left in Agloe alone, isolated, and disconnected from reality, she maintains her memory with all the photos taken during the Agloe project. These same photos are displayed when Nell goes to Agloe, symbolizing Tam and Nell’s human connection as well. Even Wally holds a photo of the Cartographers at the remains of the Rockland house, symbolizing his desire to reunite with Tam. In this way, Peng Shepherd both highlights and contrasts isolation and community via her symbolism of Wally’s camera and the photographs he takes.

The compass rose that Nell sees over and over again during her quest to find answers about Agloe is a dual symbol. It is a direct symbol within the plot for the Cartographers as a group, but it is also a metaphorical symbol for their legacy, especially when passed to Nell. As youths and young adults, the Cartographers were ambitious. They were imaginative and thought outside the box, which eventually culminated in the original Dreamer’s Atlas, a re-imagining of fantastical maps as real and real maps as fantasy. As Eve admitted when Nell asked about the symbol, “[Tam] made it up [...] They put it on everything” (136). They were destined for greatness, they thought, and were already leaving their mark on the world.

The symbol itself is suited to legacy. It’s a simple compass rose, easily reproducible, but with a C in the center to distinguish it as special, denoting the Cartographers themselves. A compass rose on a map indicates direction and orientation, allowing users to find their way using the information within the map.

Nell undertakes her Agloe quest in a similar fashion. She follows the Cartographers’ trail for clues and leads, noticing their symbol and learning from their mistakes. Her parents were stubborn, but she will learn to listen and reflect; Wally was obsessive, but she will learn to let go. Francis didn’t value his romance, but Nell gives Felix a second change and acknowledges that she is the reason why the relationship failed. Finally, Bear ruined himself to hold the group together, and Nell sacrifices herself to save the group from Wally. As she learns these lessons, Nell gradually takes on the mantle that she wasn’t ready for at the NYPL, that of a true Cartographer, rather than just a cartographer. To symbolize this shift, Nell receives Tam’s pen with the Cartographers’ symbol on it, representing their legacy, and uses this knowledge and power to defeat Wally—literally using the Cartographers’ pen to change the map and therefore reality.