48 pages • 1 hour read
Wild Eyes
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Themes
The Transformative Power of Love and Community
Skylar flees her home and celebrity lifestyle in Los Angeles and heads to West’s rural hometown in the Canadian Rockies to get “a fresh start” (21), and her time there teaches them both about the transformative power of love and community. Her life has been so constricting that her “throat goes […] tight” when she tries to speak and “every word fails [her]” (21) when she tries to sing. For years, she has been forced to hide “behind a shiny veneer” (47) in order to uphold her starlet persona, and her time in Rose Hill opens her to a new way of life. On West’s ranch, she is surrounded by nature, family, love, and friends for the first time. With West and his children, Emmy and Oliver, she discovers an unexpected sense of home and belonging. Their deepening bonds illustrate the fact that authentic, reciprocal relationships can have profoundly positive impacts on personal self-esteem. For the first time, Skylar feels capable and confident because she is authentically loved. At the same time, she teaches West that he deserves an equal partner in his domestic and country life.
Skylar and West’s evolving romantic relationship offers them both a deep and meaningful connection. Although they have both dated other people in the past, nothing was a good fit. Skylar has never felt seen in her relationships, and after her breakup with Andrew McCann, she begins to wonder if any of these dynamics were real. Similarly, although West had two children with his ex-wife, Mia, he never felt like she was his friend. His sexual relationships since his divorce have offered him the illusion of closeness, but they have not satisfied his desire for lasting companionship. Together, Skylar and West develop a holistic romance and discard their “usual mask[s]” because they trust one another completely. Skylar doesn’t worry about West criticizing her public persona, and West doesn’t worry about Skylar judging his solitary lifestyle as a single dad. Their devotion to one another’s physical, emotional, and mental well-being makes them both feel wanted and cherished. As this romance develops, Silver suggests that reciprocal, sustainable romances are founded on honesty, trust, and affection.
Journey Toward Self-Acceptance
Skylar and West’s intersecting storylines illustrate the protagonists’ efforts to accept themselves as they are rather than striving to conform to unrealistic external standards. At the start of the novel, Skylar and West are both at transitional points in their lives. When Skylar flees LA for Rose Hill, she is trying to remake herself on her own terms. She’s worried that “everything about [her] is fake” and that the world has “been spoon-fed a lie” (21) about who she is. Because Skylar has lived in the spotlight since she was a little girl, she hasn’t been able to come of age on her own terms. She’s lived her life behaving, presenting, and expressing herself in the ways her manager—who’s also her father—and her agent have told her to. Spending time in Rose Hill, far away from the cameras and pressures of celebrity life, quickly makes Skylar realize that she “need[s] to learn to love [her]self” (56). Her experience parallels West’s, in that West is still figuring out what it means to be a single father. While he can see that “there’s a lot more to Skylar Stone than just a pretty face,” he’s starting to worry “if no matter how fun and likable” he is, “there’s something about [him] that isn’t enough to keep people around” (215).
These parallels in the protagonists’ efforts to improve their self-regard launch their intersecting journeys of self-discovery and self-acceptance. The novel’s alternating chapters use strategic moments of contrast to illustrate the characters’ contribution to each other’s evolution, contrasting their first-person perspectives to create implicit parallels between their experiences and personal challenges. Over time, Skylar and West begin to vocalize their opinions of one another, and these critical scenes of dialogue advance and deepen their connection and encourage them to value themselves.
Within this context, Skylar’s decisions to fire her manager and agent and to stand up for herself on national television stand as strong evidence of her personal growth. West similarly exemplifies his growth when he takes the risk of traveling to LA and making a grand gesture of his love for Skylar. By showing up at her award ceremony and confronting her father on her behalf, he proves that he is willing to stand by Skylar in every aspect of her life, providing her with much stronger support than her own family ever could. As the two protagonists learn how to claim their emotions and express their needs to others, they also discover that their relationship offers them a new perspective on their future, both as a couple and as individuals.
The Pursuit of Happiness
Silver uses Skylar and West’s individual journeys to convey the sheer courage that is needed to pursue happiness on one’s own terms. Skylar initially takes a risk by venturing out into “the middle of the Canadian wilderness” (20) to find her version of happiness. Coming from a world of “sterile polish,” “white pillars,” “fountains,” “valets,” and “artsy city boys,” Skylar is unaccustomed to the rural country lifestyle that she finds in Rose Hill (24, 25). However, the longer she spends time “wander[ing] down to the lake,” meditating near the “massive tree straddling the lake’s edge” (54), watching West work with the horses, and getting to know Emmy and Oliver, the more balanced Skylar feels. These environmental and interpersonal aspects of her time in Rose Hill only intensify her investment in her new recording project. The internal peace that she finds on West’s ranch gives her the emotional safety she needs to write music for herself again. Working with Ford Grant and Cora at Wild Rose Records helps her remember her love for music—a pastime that “used to bring [her] joy” and “put a skip in [her] step” (53). These crucial changes in her domestic, environmental, and vocational circumstances facilitate her pursuit of happiness. She has taken the risk to abandon her city life, and in doing so, she has found peace and contentment.
West discovers how to be happy by sharing his life with Skylar. While West “is just a happy kind of guy,” he is “happier with [Skylar]” (262). Before she comes to Rose Hill, West learns to hide behind his innate positivity. He genuinely believes that everything will work out in life, and he is also devoted to creating a peaceful, loving home environment for his children. However, when West’s children are absent, his property “doesn’t feel much like home” (215), and he is faced with his own loneliness. With Skylar, West discovers that investing in another person’s life offers him a sense of meaning and purpose. His “horses are great companions” (215), and he loves his kids, but with Skylar, he is building a more definite future for himself. For him, she comes to represent home—a notion that underscores how safe and contented Skylar makes West feel. As these scenes illustrate, West and Skylar offer each other a revised version of happiness, giving one another the courage to take risks and to acknowledge their feelings. As a result, they foster a healthy, loving home life that promises to endure.
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