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Family and Community
Themes and Colors
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Great Alone, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Death is a near constant in the harsh world of The Great Alone. One statistic, mentioned several times over the course of the novel, says that five out of every 1000 people go missing in Alaska. In Kaneq, more than anywhere Leni has ever lived, death is a key part of life; animals are regularly killed for food, Geneva Walker freezes in the icy water, and Cora is forced to shoot Ernt when he threatens Leni’s life. Throughout the novel, Leni regularly confronts her own mortality, as well as that of her family members and friends. In fact, Leni almost dies several times; once when she and Cora get into a car accident, once while crossing ice, once when Ernt fires a gun in their direction, and again when she and Matthew fall into a mountain crevice. Many of these experiences bring with them extreme grief, particularly Matthew’s life-altering injuries and Cora’s death. However, despite all that she goes through, Leni still returns to Alaska; she wants to raise her son in Kaneq and marry Matthew. Although it regularly focuses on death and grief, The Great Alone is not nihilistic. It allows most of its characters a relatively happy ending, ultimately celebrating the perseverance of the human spirit and the transcendent quality of love despite suffering and death.
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Death and Grief ThemeTracker
The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Death and Grief appears in each chapter of The Great Alone. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
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Death and Grief Quotes in The Great Alone
Below you will find the important quotes in The Great Alone related to the theme of Death and Grief.
Chapter 9
Quotes
Leni didn’t want to think about a loss like that, the bone-breaking magnitude of it, but at a time like this there was no looking away, and when she did look it in the face, without blinking or turning away, she knew this: if she were Matthew, she would need a friend right now. Who knew how the friend could help, whether offering silent companionship or a clatter of words was better? That, the how, she would have to figure out on her own. But the what—friendship—that she knew for sure.
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Chapter 21
Quotes
Mostly he was afraid for Leni, because no matter how this all worked out, no matter if she did everything perfectly and got away and saved her mom, Leni’s heart would always have a broken place. It didn’t matter how you lost a parent or how great or shitty that parent was, a kid grieved forever. Matthew grieved for the mother he’d had. He figured Leni would grieve for the dad she wanted.
Chapter 24
Quotes
Matthew’s eyes opened. One stared straight ahead. The other rolled wildly in the socket. That one staring green eye was the only part of him she recognized. He struggled, made a terrible moaning sound of pain.
He opened his mouth, screamed, “Bwaaaa…” He thrashed, bucked up like he was trying to break free. The halo made a clanging sound when it hit the bedrail. Blood started to form at the bolts in his temple. An alarm went off. “Hermmmm…”
Chapter 27
Quotes
“It’s been years,” her mother said. “Look at her. She’s happy. Why must we keep having this conversation?”
Cora wanted to agree. It was what she said to herself on a daily basis. Look, she’s happy. Sometimes, she was able to almost wholly believe it. And then there were days like today. She didn’t know what caused the change. Weather, maybe. Old habits. The kind of corrosive fear that once it moved in, pitted your bones and stayed forever.
