Motifs In 'The River King'

Mustafa Mohajir

Ms. McSweeney

English I Honors

April 6th, 2023

Motif Essay - The River King

Have you ever put something off for so long that it begins to bug you? In her novel, The River King Alice Hoffman uses a motif to reveal a related idea about love and people's attempts to escape it. A motif is a distinctive repeating feature or idea that helps develop other narrative aspects such as theme or mood within a piece of literature. A motif can be an object, imagery, language, or even structure the author includes in their writing to elevate its depth and reveal things about specific characters. Throughout her novel, The River King, Hoffman uses the motif of the swans to demonstrate that the more people try to escape love, the more it will

One time this occurred was when Betsy noticed that she had had an increasing interest in Abe recently and still didn’t understand. She tries to ignore it and ends up going to the pharmacy to get the newspaper. While there she sees Abe and hides behind the newspapers. The author states, “...when she walked into the pharmacy to buy the Tribune, she hadn't expected to find the man himself there at the counter… ‘There's no point in hiding,’ Abe called when he noticed her ducking behind the newspaper racks… ‘I've got the photos for you.’ She handed Abe the packet of perfectly ordinary prints…He noticed that one of those damned swans from the school was traipsing along the sidewalk across the street…”(Hoffman 181-184). In this quote it is mentioned that Abe saw Betsy “ducking behind the newspaper racks,” This is significant as it shows that Betsy is trying to escape confronting Abe. She was trying to turn a blind eye to her feelings for him and they ended up face-to-face. This highlights that though they are trying to run from this love both of them feel they inevitably run into each other. The swan's presence during this interaction reveals the consequences these characters face due to their avoidance of feelings for each other. Another time when the swans appear to symbolize the love haunting these two characters is during Thanksgiving when Abe is waiting outside while Joey steals from the headmaster's house. In this instance, Abe sees Betsy in the window of a nearby house enjoying food with her fiance Eric. The text states, “He could see through the dining room window, quite a crowd had gathered…Abe couldn't help but see Betsy, she and some man were there together…To be honest, he wished Betsy and her perfect fiance a miserable holiday… his ill temper rivaling the disposition of those miserable Haddan swans. Just his luck, the pair nesting close by seemed interested in him,