54 pages • 1 hour read
Tricia LevensellerThe Shadows Between Us
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Clothing and Fashion
Clothing and fashion is one of the primary ways that Alessandra asserts her individuality throughout the novel. She makes many of her sartorial choices for tactical reasons; when she first arrives at the palace, for instance, she wears black to attract Kallias’s attention and to stand out from the sea of green (Kallias’s favorite color) that the other ladies sport. Indeed, she resists wearing green in order to make a point: “‘This is one of the few outfits I haven’t worn yet. I was angry at you and didn’t want to wear your favorite color.’ ‘But then you wore it anyway?’ ‘I thought it might make you angrier when you were forced to watch me leave with all my things’” (186). Kallias, laughing, admits that he would have been angrier, indicating that he, too, is cognizant of the symbolism of clothing. Alessandra also evidently finds pleasure in making her own clothes and regularly enjoys afternoons sewing with her friends, suggesting that her careful manner of dress is not exclusively a practical, tactical manner.
Style is also represented in the novel as an articulation of self even when that articulation is not yet formed. Hestia, for example, spends much of the novel imitating Alessandra’s style so closely that Alessandra expects Hestia to copy her down to the color each day. This imitation is framed as a larger issue in Hestia’s life, an issue of not knowing how to pursue her own wants and desires. Alessandra and Rhoda both urge Hestia to learn herself better. “‘At some point,’ Rhoda offers, ‘you really must become your own woman, Hestia. Find your own style. And own it’” (108). Ultimately, Hestia’s choice to dress according to her own style is paired with her discovery of a beau who makes her happy and learning to advocate for her wants.
Letters
Letters appear regularly as a form of communication in the novel. Kallias’s and Alessandra’s early courtship takes place through letters, allowing them to learn about one another, and letters represent their shifting relationship. In Chapter 3, for example, a letter signed with “KM” reveals Kallias’s initials before Alessandra knows his name. By Chapter 7, by contrast, they have shifted from using one another’s titles to using first names and signing letters “your friend.” They bond over the bad poetry others write to Alessandra: “‘Who the hell wrote this?’ Kallias’s eyes skip to the end to find the signature. Then he barks out a laugh. ‘Orrin wrote you a love letter!’” (239). Their relationship ultimately becomes solidified by a letter, as well; in an effort to prove he can write a better letter than Orrin, Kallias writes an admission of love, which he reads to Alessandra when they reconcile at the novel’s conclusion.
Letters also appear in the text as a means for trickery, whether scheming or emotional manipulation. Orrin’s love letter is used against him, his handwriting is copied to trap him into a compromising position with Melita, and Lord Vasco uses a letter to lure Kallias and Alessandra to the gentlemen’s club as part of his plot to kill Kallias. Alessandra’s family also uses letters to attempt to manipulate their daughter and sister. Sergio writes the send-off, “Your Loving Father” after a pushy letter to Alessandra (87), and Chrysantha criticizes Alessandra’s sexual history, causing the younger sister to fume, “How dare she try to morality with me? Though a letter” (394). The emphasis on letter indicates that Alessandra understands the fallibility of the mode of communication and finds it an unfitting medium to have debates.
Shadows
Shadows take on various symbolic meaning throughout The Shadows Between Us. Kallias’s shadow powers mean that shadows are often literally present in the novel, indicating his impressive, otherworldly power that Alessandra admires and envies. She thinks, “Kallias is like a specter as he moves through the palace, all flickering shadows floating from place to place. Though his feet still make the imitation of steps, I wonder if they need to” (229). Shadows can also obscure danger. After the assassin attempts to kill Kallias in the garden, Alessandra frets, “Every shadow in the room feels as though it’s concealing an intruder” (236). As she comes to care more for Kallias, valuing his life for his own sake more than for what knowing him can get her, she longs to banish the shadows. At her ball, she demands bright illumination, “Not only to give the illusion of noonday in the garden, but so that any treachery or deceit would be impossible to hide behind shadows” (327). Shadows thus transition from something that can usefully hide misdeeds to something that can frighteningly hide misdeeds enacted against Alessandra and Kallias.
Metaphorically, the shadows also serve as a barrier against intimacy. When attempting to seduce her away from Kallias, Leandros frames the shadows as an unsurmountable obstacle: “I would love you completely, wholly, as a woman ought to be loved. I won’t hide behind shadows” (299). Despite Leandros’s ill intent, the novel does not frame his characterization of the shadows as being incorrect. Kallias, when deciding to touch Alessandra and risk his powers, says, ‘I want a life with you, Alessandra, one without the shadows between us” (355). Shadows are thus portrayed, in their different aspects, as something dangerously effective at hiding emotion, cruelty, or power.
