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Symbols
Like Molly Ayer, Vivian/Niamh has a necklace from her birth family that holds deep sentimental value. As a young girl, Niamh Power’s Gram gave her a claddagh cross necklace. The pewter necklace has two hands holding a heart in the center. The claddagh cross is a Celtic symbol that Vivian/Niamh considers to represent love, friendship, loyalty, and the journey that leads from home and back. Vivian/Niamh wears the necklace throughout her childhood and most of her adulthood. It represents her cultural identity and history, as well as her emotional connection to her homeland and her birth family. In Vivian/Niamh’s life, she ultimately finds her way back to her family and her origins by coming to terms with her past and by reuniting with the daughter she gave up for adoption, Sarah Dunnell.
The Claddagh Cross / Vivian’s Necklace Quotes in Orphan Train
The Orphan Train quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Claddagh Cross / Vivian’s Necklace. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 10
Quotes
How strange, I think – that I am in a place my parents have never been and will never see. How strange that I am here and they are gone. I touch the claddagh cross around my neck.
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Chapter 30
Quotes
And though I rarely take the claddagh off, as I get older I can’t escape the realization that the only remaining piece of my blood family comes from a woman who pushed her only son and his family out to sea in a boat, knowing full well she’d probably never see them again.
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Chapter 40
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Molly touches Vivian’s shoulder, frail and bony under her thin silk cardigan. She half turns, half smiles, her eyes brimming with tears. Her hand flutters to her clavicle, to the silver chain around her neck, the claddagh charm – those tiny hands clasping a crowned heart: love, loyalty, friendship – a never-ending path that leads away from home and circles back.
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The Claddagh Cross / Vivian’s Necklace Symbol Timeline in Orphan Train
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Claddagh Cross / Vivian’s Necklace appears in Orphan Train. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 4: New York City, 1929
...“too comely.” She and another matron try to tell her that she can’t bring her claddagh cross necklace onto “the train” because the children “aren’t allowed keepsakes.” The narrator tells them it...
(full context)
Chapter 15: Albans, Minnesota, 1929
...Niamh to buy a coat and two sweaters on discount. That night, she notices “Dorothy’s” claddagh cross for the first time. She disdainfully asks about it, and Niamh tells the story of...
(full context)
Chapter 21: Spruce Harbor, Maine, 2011
...necklace, which she has always kept, as an example. Molly sees Vivian reach for her claddagh cross , and asks her if it has special meaning. Vivian says that it does. Molly...
(full context)
Chapter 22: Hemingford County, Minnesota, 1930
...a shortage of food. One day, he tries to figure out the worth of Niamh’s claddagh cross , but Niamh convinces him that her necklace is made of tin and worth nothing....
(full context)
Chapter 25: Hemingford, Minnesota, 1930
...Irish name, and she asks her real name. She also notices how Niamh “guards” her claddagh cross carefully, remarking: “It’s the only thing you’ve got to remind you of your people, now,...
(full context)
Chapter 28: Hemingford, Minnesota, 1930
...about the burden of “feeding that family.” On the day her Gram gave her the Claddagh cross from her own first communion, she told her it would always lead her back home....
(full context)
Chapter 30: Hemingford, Minnesota, 1930-1931
...One Sunday, while polishing the silver together, Mrs. Nielsen offers to help Niamh polish her claddagh cross . Niamh tells her it was from her Gram, but Mrs. Nielsen smiles and asks...
(full context)
...by, Niamh’s memories of her birth family start to fade. Still, she always wears the claddagh cross . When she is older, she realizes her only token of her birth family is...
(full context)
Chapter 36: Hemingford, Minnesota, 1940-1943
...me”—but when the draft begins, Dutchy is called. Before he leaves, Vivian gives him her claddagh cross . While he is in training in San Diego, Vivian discovers she is pregnant. Despite...
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...personal items from Jim Daly, Dutchy’s shipmate. It “will be years before” she puts the claddagh cross back on. Dutchy’s superstition kept him from telling others about the baby, and in Vivian’s...
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Chapter 40: Spruce Harbor, Maine, 2011
...moved by her expression of “yearning and wariness and hopefulness and love.” Molly looks at Vivian’s necklace and considers its meaning: “love, loyalty, friendship – a never-ending path that leads away from...
(full context)
