51 pages • 1 hour read
Miriam ToewsAll My Puny Sorrows
Miriam ToewsFiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
AMPS
When Elf Von Riesen is young, she falls in love with a line from a Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem. In the poem, titled “To A Friend, With An Unfinished Poem,” the speaker says: “I too a sister had, an only Sister— / She lov’d me dearly, and I doted on her! / To her I pour’d forth all my puny sorrows” (231). Elf falls in love with the last line of this excerpt and then incorporates it into a new signature for herself. The signature combines her initials with the acronym AMPS, which stands for “all my puny sorrows.” Elf then begins to tag various locations around East Village with AMPS when she starts “work[ing] on ‘increasing her visibility’” (13). In a retrospective passage, Yoli remarks that there “are still red spray-painted AMPSs in East Village today although they are fading” (15). The AMPS tag therefore symbolizes legacy. The letters relate to Elf’s complex interiority while simultaneously speaking to her love for literature and art. The lingering AMPS tags are furthermore a reminder of Elf’s childhood energy and vivaciousness.
The AMPS tags also relate to the novel’s title and Yoli and Elf’s relationship. Because the originating Coleridge poem is about sisters, the “all my puny sorrows” line offers insight into Elf and Yoli’s complex connection (231), suggesting that they, too, view each other as the person who will imbue their “puny sorrows” with significance. Furthermore, the line speaks to Yoli’s lingering sorrow over losing Elf.
Toronto House
After Elf dies, Yoli discovers that Elf left her money through her life insurance policy. She decides “to use the life insurance money to buy a dilapidated fixer-upper house in Toronto” (267), which she thinks would please Elf. She then invites Lottie to “mov[e] to Toronto to live with [her] and Nora” in the new house (267). The house is thus a symbol of survival. It gives the family hope and offers them renewal.
The house’s disrepair when Yoli buys it mirrors her and her family’s challenging past. Indeed, Yoli narrates that “[t]he walls are cracked, or missing or crumbling, the floors are wrecked, the stairs, every set of them, are broken, the bricks are disintegrating into red powder that floats around the house like volcanic ash and gets into your eyes and mouth, [and] the roof needs replacing” (271). These details render the house seemingly unlivable. However, the realtor has told Yoli that although the house “is falling apart,” it “has good bones” (270). The same can be said of Yoli’s family. They have experienced great hardship and significant loss. On their exterior, therefore, their relationships seem broken and unsustainable. However, they are in fact just as strong as the house and are ready for rejuvenation, newness, and a second life.
In these ways, the house both parallels Yoli’s family’s experiences and offers them a new chance at healing. In the house, Yoli, Lottie, and Nora embrace new traditions and work to support one another. The house grants them a life beyond their loss and grief and ushers them into a new era together.
Yoli’s Manuscript
Yoli’s manuscript symbolizes identity. Throughout the novel, Yoli carries the pages of her incomplete novel in a plastic grocery store bag. This bag conveys Yoli’s disregard for her work, in that she isn’t being cautious about protecting the pages. Her interactions with the manuscript underscore this notion. Sometimes she takes out the pages and glances at them. Other times, she writes on the top page, trying to come up with a fitting title. Possible titles include “A Life Time of Resentment,” “A Devotion to Sadness,” “Smithereens,” “Untitled,” and “Entitled” (170). Yoli crosses out each of these possibilities. The titles and Yoli’s scribbles show her frustration with herself and her work.
In other scenes, Yoli tells her friends, acquaintances, or family members about the manuscript, detailing the plot points and her current struggle to continue writing. However, Yoli never sits down to work on the novel in a concerted manner. Therefore, the manuscript illustrates the way that Yoli regards herself and her life’s path. She often feels frustrated, incomplete, and disappointed. She has similar feelings about her writing project, which she can’t focus on in the narrative present. This is in large part because Yoli is struggling to define herself outside the context of her sister. Indeed, because of Elf’s situation, Yoli distances herself from her writing because the fear of losing her sister estranges her from herself. She can’t focus on the book, which is allegedly about a boatman and sisters, because the subject matter relates to her own relationships and imaginings.
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