63 pages • 2 hours read
Shiver
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Symbols & Motifs
Flawed Parental and Authority Figures
Parents and authority figures—often depicted as complex and flawed—constitute both motif and symbol in the text. As a motif, flawed parents—a classic trope of coming-of-age narratives—illustrate The Importance of Finding One’s Pack. In the novel, parents do provide the protagonists with the nurture and support they need, leaving them to find kinship with their chosen families. Denied the care of their parents, the young characters must fend for themselves, becoming independent and autonomous. The absent or flawed parent is a common trope in children’s and young adult literature, providing a context for the protagonists to grow up fast and confront their inner and outer demons.
As a symbol, parents and authority figures represent the past traumas the characters must overcome to come into their own. For instance, Grace cannot let her parents’ neglect define her, much as Sam must grapple with the violence and abuse of his mother and father, asserting his own value and worth independent of them. Authority figures in the novel are frequently portrayed as thwarting or patronizing the younger characters, which Maggie Stiefvater frames as attempts to diminish their personhood. When a nurse in the hospital insists that Grace is lying about Sam’s injuries, an exasperated Grace observes that “of all [her] pet peeves, condescending adults [are] probably at the top of the list” (66). Even sympathetic parental figures like Beck make ambiguous choices. Beck turned Sam because he genuinely believed he would be able to give the boy a better life, but the fact remains that the choice was never Beck’s to make. These ambiguous choices define the adult caregivers in the story as deeply flawed, suggesting the trauma they inflict must be dismantled for the young protagonists to create a new world and claim their independent identities.
The Poetry of Rilke
Sam often quotes from one of his favorite poets, the 20th-century Austrian writer Rainer Maria Rilke. Widely translated from German, Rilke is known for his mystical and romantic poems, which explore themes of existence, mortality, and love. Rilke’s poetry works as a motif in the novel, highlighting The Power and Limits of Love. Sam is particularly attracted to Rilke’s sonnets, as they reflect both his intense love for Grace and the realization that love cannot stop his change or his eventual death. Mortality and loss weigh heavily on Sam’s mind, raising the emotional stakes of the plot. After Sam turns forever, his life-span will reduce to that of a wolf (which the novel indicates is only 15 more years), creating a sense of urgency that motivates him to take risks to stay human.
Rilke’s poems also act as a bridge for Grace to understand Sam. After Sam leaves, Grace goes to the Crooked Shelf and buys a book of poems by Rilke. When she reads a passage about the pain of separation, she thinks that she’s “beginning to understand poetry” (383), which makes her feel connected to Sam. The poems introduce Grace to Sam’s mental state and also awaken her own understanding about the human experience.
Werewolves
A key motif and symbol in the novel, werewolves represent transformation, the power of love, and The Tension Between Human Emotion and Animal Instinct. The werewolf has an ancient origin with its first mentions appearing even in a second-century BCE Greek text, which tells of a king transforming into a wolf. In folklore and popular culture, a werewolf has come to represent a human, who after being bitten by an infected wolf, transforms into a wolfish creature during a full moon—a legend that many writers have reinterpreted in different ways. In the Wolves of Mercy Falls series, Stiefvater depicts the werewolf transformation as the result of a virus (revealed in the sequels to Shiver). Further, the transformation is controlled to a large extent by the weather and shifts in temperature. Colder weather hastens a human’s shift into the lupine state. The longer a person has been a werewolf, the more likely it is for them to shift into a permanent wolf-state, which implies a shortened lifespan. The constant threat of their own mortality adds a sense of urgency to the plot, raising the stakes of the narrative.
Stiefvater uses metaphor and figurative language to describe the wolves’ transformations. For example, Sam likens it to riding a roller coaster. As the temperature drops, the roller coaster climbs toward its apex. He can still fight the transformation until he reaches the peak, but once over the edge, the transformation is unavoidable. Stiefvater’s wolves are different from the classic werewolf that retains its human intelligence in the wolf form. The novel’s wolves have an altered animal intelligence, though they retain some vestiges of human consciousness. They look like regular wolves, rather than the larger wolf-human hybrid associated with classic depictions of werewolves closer to shape-shifters, or creatures who live between two forms. Stiefvater’s original portrayal enhances the novel’s conflicts and dilemmas: Since Sam cannot communicate with Grace in his lupine state, he longs to be a human forever. The werewolf transformation thus becomes a metaphor for battling an insurmountable obstacle.
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By Maggie Stiefvater
