Winter Garden

“In her mind, she cropped, framed, printed, and hung the image among the great ones she’d collected. Someday her portraits would show the world how strong and powerful women could be, as well as the personal cost of that strength.”

Nina devotes her life to documenting female strength, acknowledging that women and mothers make great sacrifices for the sake of their families. Ironically, Nina has yet to discover her mother’s strength and how much tragedy and trauma she’s overcome—a discovery that will form a central part of Conflict and Redemption Within Women’s Relationships in the novel.

“They’d always handled things differently, Nina and Meredith. Even as girls, Nina had fallen often and picked herself back up; Meredith had moved cautiously, rarely losing her balance. Nina had broken things; Meredith held them together.”

This passage demonstrates how different Nina’s and Meredith’s personalities are, leading to significant conflict when they have to work together after Evan’s death. The sisters have had to live with and accept Anya’s cold behavior, and in so doing, have learned to cope with life’s stresses and struggles in unhealthy ways.

“For decades [Meredith had] told herself that her mother’s fairy tales meant nothing; now she had to admit what a lie that had been. She’d loved hearing those stories, and during the telling, she’d accidentally loved her mother. That was the truth about why Meredith had stopped listening. It hurt too much.”

Although storytelling plays an important role in the Whitson family, Anya’s inability to connect with her daughters outside of those stories leads to resentment and emotional trauma, as illustrated by Meredith’s behavior in this passage. Nina and Meredith don’t understand that by telling these fairy tales, Anya is acknowledging her past and the trauma that came from it. This passage highlights the motif of storytelling in the novel (See: Symbols & Motifs).

“She wished that they could come together, dissipate some of this pain by pooling it. But that wasn’t who they were. She put down her wineglass and went to Nina, the little sister who’d once begged her to remember Mom’s fairy tales and tell them in the dark when she couldn’t sleep. ‘We have each other,’ Meredith said. ‘Yeah,’ Nina agreed, although their eyes betrayed them both. They knew it wasn’t enough.”

Meredith sees the grief Nina experiences after Evan’s death but has no way to comfort or console her. This inability to comfort demonstrates the deep emotional trauma that all the Whitson women experience because Anya experienced so much loss and never learned how to live despite it. She has passed this trauma onto her daughters, who avoid emotional connections and situations instead of facing and overcoming them. This dilemma introduces the theme of Overcoming Grief and Loss.

“Nina wished that made her feel better, but it didn’t. She knew about unequal love, how you could be crushed from the inside if one person was more in love than the other. Hadn’t she sometimes seen that kind of wreckage in Dad’s eyes when he looked at Mom? She was sure she had. And once you’d seen that kind of pain, you didn’t forget it. If Danny ever looked at her like that it would break her heart. And he would. Sooner or later he’d figure out that she might have loved her dad, but she was more like her mom.”

Like Meredith, Nina can be emotionally detached, a trait both women get from their mother. Nina demonstrates this coldness by not telling her family about Danny, though they’ve been together for over four years. This passage also indicates that Anya’s indifference wasn’t always directed at her daughters but also caused some strain in her marriage.

“‘Hey, Anya,’ he said in a voice so gentle it made Meredith remember what a wonderful father he was, how easily he’d dried his daughters’ tears and made them laugh. He was such a good man; after all Mom had put him through over the years, all the silence she’d heaped on him, still he managed to care about her.”

This passage illustrates the type of character Jeff is and how he’s been a part of the Whitson family since he and Meredith were children. His character also creates a foil to Meredith because he can look past his mother-in-law’s coldness and still be kind and gentle with her. On the other hand, Meredith resents her mother and has difficulty being kind and loving to Anya.

“In the freezer, she found dozens of containers of food, each one marked and dated in black ink. Her mother had always cooked for a platoon instead of a family, and nothing from the Whitson table was ever thrown away. Everything was packed up, dated, and frozen for later use. If Armageddon ever came, no one at Belye Nochi would go hungry.”

This image of Anya’s freezer illustrates how she has carried her experience during the Siege of Leningrad into her later life. She cooks and knits in abundance because she knows what it is to starve and freeze. Thus, she overcompensates by preparing more food than she needs and knitting more blankets than she can use.

“Meredith nodded. It was true, although she’d never really thought about it before. Daisy did know the orchard and its operation better than anyone except Meredith herself. She’d worked here for twenty-nine years.”

Meredith has difficulty letting go of control over every aspect of her life, especially at work. She feels that everything will fall apart if she lets go, whether it be of her emotions, her children, or the orchard, as she reflects here when considering the longtime worker, Daisy. Since Meredith refuses to let go, she causes herself great harm, especially regarding her relationships. Part of her journey in the novel is learning to let go and trusting that everything will be okay when she does.

“It was a hell of a story, worth listening to, if for no other reason than to hear her mother speak with such passion and power. The woman who told that story was someone else entirely, not the cold, distant Anya Whitson of Nina’s youth.”

Despite Anya’s cold behavior toward her daughters, she has always taken on a different persona when telling the fairy tale. Meredith and Nina would listen to the story when they were young, not to learn from their mother but to hear her voice. Now that Nina is an adult, she begins to see the power behind the fairy tale, leading her to realize that the story is a true account of her mother’s life.

“‘I do not know what to do now,’ Vera says. She feels disconnected from herself, from her own life. ‘I have been waiting for you to ask me this,’ Mama says. ‘You both have been waiting. Hoping. Now you know: this is our life. Our Petya will not come back. This is who we are now.’”

This passage demonstrates that much of Anya’s life is based on loss and grief, starting with her father’s death. This event does not help Anya to be more empathic toward Meredith and Nina when Evan dies. Instead, Anya expects her daughters to adjust to their new lives like her mother expected her to, reflecting The Links Between Family and Identity and how intergenerational trauma shapes the Whitson family.

“They stood there, the three of them, laughing together in the middle of the winter garden, with the apple trees all around them, and it was the best tribute to him they could have made. And later, when Mom and Meredith had gone inside, Nina stood there alone, in the quiet, staring down at a velvety white magnolia blossom dressed in gray ash. ‘Did you hear us laughing? We’ve never done that before, not the three of us, not together. We laughed for you, Dad….’”

Up to this point, the winter garden has served as a place for quiet reflection and grief. Now, after Nina trips and accidentally scatters her father’s ashes, the garden becomes a place of healing (See: Symbols & Motifs). Evan had always wanted his wife and daughters to be close, but it isn’t until his death that he brings them together. This moment of laughter in the winter garden initiates the process of Overcoming Grief and Loss for Anya, Meredith, and Nina.

“From then on, Nina became like Meredith, a daddy’s girl who hardly spoke to her mother and expected nothing from her. It was the only way she’d found to protect herself from pain. Now that habit would have to be reconsidered. For years, she’d seen her mother without really looking at her, just as she and Meredith had heard the fairy tale without really listening. They had taken for granted that it was a lovely bit of fiction; they’d listened only to hear their mother’s voice. But everything was different now.”

Like Meredith, Nina has one specific moment when she becomes detached from her mother. It occurred when Anya took Nina to the train station and left without waving goodbye, leaving Nina hurt and determined never to expect anything from her mother. Nina doesn’t realize that Anya’s actions stem from past trauma when she lost her husband and daughter. Nina is also learning that there’s more to the fairy tale than she realized, forcing her to put aside past hurt to better understand her mother and what she’s saying through the fairy tale.

“‘I wish you had told me.’ ‘Yeah. Me, too.’ ‘Words matter, I guess,’ he said finally. ‘Maybe your dad knew that all along.’ Meredith nodded. How was it that her whole life could be distilled down to that simple truth? Words mattered.”

This brief exchange between Meredith and Jeff taps into the novel’s motif of storytelling and the importance of words (See: Symbols & Motifs). Much harm has come to Meredith’s family and marriage because of what the characters won’t say. Anya, Meredith, and Nina hide their emotions, preventing them from understanding each other and healing from past trauma. Meredith is now experiencing this problem with her husband and finds that communication is the greatest way to overcome this problem.

“As they took their seats, Mom smiled at the hostess and thanked her. Meredith was so surprised by the warmth in Mom’s smile that she actually paused.”

Based on years of experience, Meredith sees her mother as cold, distant, and apathetic. However, this brief moment of warmth makes Meredith realize there is more to Anya’s outward behavior. This moment also demonstrates how Anya develops as a character and finds peace as she tells her daughters about her past.

“We women make choices for others, not for ourselves, and when we are mothers, we […] bear what we must for our children. You will protect them. It will hurt you; it will hurt them. Your job is to hide that your heart is breaking and do what they need you to do.”

When Mama sees that Vera is struggling with the decision to evacuate Anya and Leo, she reminds her daughter that making sacrifices and difficult decisions is part of being a mother and a woman. This idea echoes the novel’s theme about Conflict and Redemption Within Women’s Relationships, as Anya first learns to repress her emotions through her mother’s influence, as she will in turn teach Meredith and Nina to do later on.

“‘How can I—how can we,’ she said, including Meredith in this, ‘not want answers? You are part of who we are, and we don’t know you. Maybe it’s why we don’t know ourselves. Meredith can’t figure out if she loves her husband or what her own dream is. And I’ve got a man waiting for me in Atlanta and all I can think about is Vera.’”

Nina makes this comment to Anya during their Alaskan cruise, explaining why she and Meredith want answers about the fairy tale. Wanting these answers relates to the novel’s theme of The Links Between Family and Identity and how important it is for the characters to know who they are so they can know what they want.

“Vera is weary to the bone, but she strokes her sister’s dirty, matted hair and uses the only thing she has—her voice—to soothe their spirits. ‘The Snow Kingdom is a magical, walled city, where night never falls and white doves nest on telephone lines…’ Long after Olga has fallen asleep, Vera is still stringing her pretty words together, changing the world around them in the only way she can.”

This passage marks the moment that Vera begins coping with her trauma through the fairy tale and illustrates that she’s told the fairy tale for most of her life. This passage also demonstrates how words help Vera comfort others and help her with Overcoming Grief and Loss.

“Mama takes Vera in her arms, holding her so hard that neither can breathe. There is only silence between them; in that silence, memories pass back and forth like dye in water, moving and fluid, and when they pull back and look at each other, Vera understands. They will not speak of Olga again, not for a long time, not until the sharp pain rounds into something that can be handled.”

While words can do much to help Vera comfort others, her family doesn’t use words to mourn the dead. This exchange between Vera and her mother after Olga dies reflects the emotional repression perpetuated within the family, as neither woman wishes to “speak of Olga” until their grief “can be handled”—a repression that only serves to perpetuate their trauma and grief.

“Mom laid a hand on her forearm. ‘Look at me, Meredith. I am what fear makes of a woman. Do you want to end up like me?’ Meredith slowly reached out and removed her mother’s sunglasses. Staring into the aqua-blue eyes that had always mesmerized her, Meredith smiled. ‘You know what, Mom? I’d be proud to have your strength. What you’ve been through—and we don’t know the worst of it, I think—it would have killed an ordinary woman. Only someone extraordinary could have survived. So, yeah, I do want to end up like you.’”

This passage is the first time Meredith vocalizes the strength she now sees in her mother after hearing her story of Overcoming Grief and Loss. This exchange also shows the deep sense of guilt Anya has about what happened to her family. She blames herself for their death and refuses to connect with Nina and Meredith out of fear and grief.

“‘I think this is the first time I’ve ever just talked about him. Just remembered something ordinary.’ ‘Does it hurt?’ Meredith asked. Mom thought about that for a moment and then said, ‘In a good way. We were always so scared to mention him. This is what Stalin did to us. When I first came to the United States, I could not believe how free everyone was, how quick to say what was on their minds. And in the sixties and seventies…’ She shook her head, smiling. ‘My father would have loved to see a sit-in or the college kids demonstrating. He was like them, like […] Sasha and your father. Dreamers.’”

Vera grew up under a Communist regime, and this conversation helps readers understand one of the key differences between Russian and American culture. Anya knows the power words have, yet she also knows that words can be dangerous. Her father’s writing led to his death, so it’s easy to understand why Anya would hesitate to share her story with Vasily from a political standpoint.

“No one will give me a gun. Every man I ask tells me to calm down, that I will feel better tomorrow. I should have asked a woman, another mother who had killed one child by moving him and another by letting her go. Or maybe I am the only one who […]. Anyway, the pain is unendurable. And I do not want to get better. I deserve to be unhappy as I am.”

Vera takes full responsibility for Leo’s, Anya’s, and Sasha’s death. She feels that she broke her promise and didn’t keep her family safe; therefore, she deserves to be unhappy. Vera’s desperation reflects The Links Between Family and Identity: Having lost her family, Vera loses her sense of self and her purpose in life, feeling deep grief and thinking about suicide.

“Her mother was a lioness. A warrior. A woman who’d chosen a life of hell for herself because she wanted to give up and didn’t know how. And with that small understanding came another, bigger one. Nina suddenly saw her own life in focus. All these years, she’d been traveling the world over, looking for her own truth in other women’s lives. But it was here all along, at home, with the one woman she’d never even tried to understand.”

Like Meredith, Nina finally realizes Anya’s incredible strength based on her unimaginable grief and loss. Previously, Nina traveled the world to find strong women who embody courage and sacrifice. Now, she realizes that her mother is the epitome of strength and courage, which helps her better understand her strengths and abilities. Nina’s realization reflects Conflict and Redemption Within Women’s Relationships.

“Meredith knew that there would be dozens of moments like this between them. Now that they’d begun the reparation process, memories would have to be constantly reinterpreted. Like the day she’d dug up Mom’s precious winter garden. It was as if she’d pulled up headstones and thrown them aside. No wonder Mom had gone a little crazy. And no wonder winters had always been difficult.”

Once Meredith and Nina hear Anya’s entire story, they can truly begin Overcoming Grief and Loss that they’ve experienced. This healing occurs because they can reexamine those fraught moments from their past and see them through their mother’s eyes, something they couldn’t do previously. This passage also ties into the symbolism behind the winter garden and how it represents Anya’s past, grief, loss, and her fight to overcome it (See: Symbols & Motifs).