Abel's Island

“[S]uddenly the wind tore from her neck the scarf of gauze she was wearing, and this airy web of stuff flew like a ghost from the mouth of the cave.”

Amanda’s scarf is small and nearly weightless, so it’s no match for the fierce winds. Using figurative language, the author compares the scarf to a ghost as it floats away in the wind. The scarf becomes the impetus for Abel’s adventure and a source of comfort to him when he misses Amanda.

“[A]nd what a story he’d have to tell!”

At first, Abel doesn’t realize the full scope of his situation. He thinks he will quickly return home and regale his family and friends with the story of his afternoon adventure. The quote is ironic because he will indeed have quite a story to tell after he is marooned for nearly a year on the island.

“His boat skedaddled up to a rock, hit it catty-cornered, and spun, and Abel was suddenly in the water, without his boat, borne along like a limp rag.”

In describing Abel’s travails on the water, the author employs slang with the words “skedaddled” and “catty-cornered.” The words add linguistic whimsy to the narrative and accurately convey the chaos Abel experiences navigating the water. Steig also uses a simile to compare the boat’s ineptness to a rag.

“The river was where it ought to be; Abel wasn’t.”

Abel at once realizes that he is in a precarious situation and that it isn’t the river’s fault for being flooded. The author establishes nature as a deterministic force. This is Abel’s first acknowledgment of nature’s blamelessness in his plight.

“The constellations proceeded across the hushed heavens as if tiptoeing past the dreaming mouse on his high branch.”

The night sky becomes a great comfort to Abel in his isolation. Being away from the bright lights of civilization gives him an unobstructed view of its splendor. The author personifies the stars, imbuing them with humanlike qualities of hushing and tiptoeing to convey how they come alive at night.

“He had provided food and shelter for himself, and woven a rope which would be his bridge to freedom, home, and love.”

Being a castaway proves beneficial for Abel’s self-esteem as he learns that he is capable of hard work and ingenuity. Steig uses a metaphor (a comparison of two things by directly transferring the qualities of one to the other) to compare the handmade rope to a bridge back to his life with Amanda.

“He was stunned with his solitude, his own silence.”

Aside from the fight for survival in a harsh environment, the castaway trope highlights the extreme condition of spending an extended time alone not by choice. Though Abel later adapts to the isolation and develops several coping mechanisms for his loneliness, at first he is overcome by the profound silence around him and within himself.

“[H]e went out in the wet grass and watched a young moon vanishing behind clouds and reappearing, over and over, like a swimmer out on the sea.”

Since Abel spends most of his days working to ensure his survival, nights are the time he relaxes, and the night sky inspires and comforts him. The author uses figurative language (a simile) to compare the movements of the moon in the sky as it appears like it is swimming in the clouds.

“He felt a strong need to participate in the designing and arranging of things.”

As Abel spends more time immersed in nature, he admires the creativity of the natural world. This inspires him to begin sculpting and later take up painting. In the Romantic tradition, nature becomes a source of inspiration for Abel as he discovers his creative side.

“He had no use for the time the watch could tell, but he needed the ticking.”

Time takes on a different significance for Abel on the island as he must move and work with the seasonal rhythms of nature. He has no need for a clock to keep time, but when he finds the pocket watch, he immediately drags it back to his shelter and treasures its cadenced ticking as a reminder of his former life in the civilized world.

“Only when taking it easy, he’d learned, could one properly do one’s wondering.”

Away from the rigors of the civilized world, Abel better understands the concept of work. Instead of viewing work as punching a clock to collect a paycheck, work is a means of sustaining life and participating in the circle of life. Abel in turn learns the importance of resting and reflecting as a way to recharge and recuperate from a day’s hard work. This rest often leads to deeper reflection on one’s self.

“It was asleep, but its erect posture, like that of a sentinel of hell, its eyes, which even shut seemed to stare, the tight grasp of its talons on the bough, and the bloody sunset in the sky behind it […]”

Birds in literature can symbolize bad omens or impending death, and Abel immediately labels the owl as a messenger of evil. He directs all his frustration and sadness on the creature; he envisions it as having a personal vendetta against him when the owl is trying to survive, just like Abel. The passage incorporates figurative language by portraying the red sky as bleeding.

“It made Abel wonder about civilization.”

Abel finds a discarded novel, and reading the story becomes part of his daily routine. In the story, a war breaks out; Abel becomes completely invested in the narrative, but the plot also pushes him to think about deeper issues and why creatures go to war.

“The day seemed confident of its own splendor.”

The longer Abel spends in nature, the more it comes alive to him and feels like a companion. After being trapped in the log during the ice storm, he emerges on a bright, sunny day. The author personifies the day to convey the depth of its beauty.

“The universe was a dreary place, asleep, cold all the way to infinity, and the wind was a separate thing, not part of the winter, but a lost, unloved soul, screaming and moaning and rushing about looking for a place to rest and reckon up its woes.”

In addition to Abel being trapped on an island, he is now snowed in, trapped inside his log. The lack of sunlight and the prolonged loneliness push Abel into a depression. The author compares the cold wind to a torturous specter stealing the last remnants of Abel’s hope.

“The sun seemed full of plans, less bored with the world than it had been, less aloof.”

After the punishing winter, the sunshine gratefully reappears pulling Abel from his depression. The author personifies the sun as if it were a living being emerging from a winter hiding place.

“I haven’t found my vocation yet.”

Gower helps Abel understand the importance of finding a vocation, or a way to generate income from pursuing one’s passion. Since Abel has always lived on his inheritance, the idea is foreign to him. In finding his vocation as an artist, Abel finds himself.

“He could not stand his own sorrow.”

Gower’s departure sends Abel into a spiral of sadness. However, it eventually inspires him to push past his fears and anxieties and make another escape attempt. Abel acknowledges the importance of feeling emotions but not allowing them to control him.

“The island has been his home for a full year. It had given him sustenance, guidance, warmth, like a parent. Something important had happened there.”

When he first lands on the island, Abel sees it as a force to overcome and escape. Once he escapes and views it from the other side of the river, his perspective changes, and he cherishes and respects it for how it kept him safe for a year.

“These images would be his forever.”

Memory becomes an important motif in the story as Abel uses his memories of home to comfort him while he is trapped. As he leaves the island, he adds it to his memories and acknowledges the island’s value in his life for what it gave him and taught him about himself.

“Abel realized that the cat had to do what she did. She was being a cat. It was up to him to be the mouse.”

Abel chooses not to hate the cat as he did the owl even though it is hunting him. His recognition of the cat’s primal instincts highlights the growth in Abel’s character and his ability to see himself not as superior to nature but as part of it.

“The unruffled moon continued to shine.”

As the cat and Abel battle one another, the moon continues to do its job of providing light to the night. The moon is fulfilling its role in nature as the cat and mouse are fulfilling theirs as predator and prey.

“It’s you! It’s really, really you!”

Amanda gleefully exclaims these words when she discovers Abel has returned to her. However, her words are ironic as it is her husband on the couch, but he is far from the same “you” she knew before.