The Watchers

In the first half of Part 2, Shine further explores The Impact of Trauma on Creativity, describing Mina’s loss of facility with her artistic talent. After being imprisoned for a month, Mina “trie[s] to draw Jennifer but [cannot] do her justice. […] The intimacy between the artist and the subject [i]s absent. Mina’s sister ha[s] never felt so distant nor so lost” (105). This passage indicates that the trauma of imprisonment has affected Mina’s memories of her normal life, obscuring her relationship with her sister. Eventually, the watchers destroy Mina’s sketchbook altogether, and this act becomes a metaphor for the psychological erasure that Mina is undergoing at their hands. As the narrative bleakly states, “Mina’s sketches—her strangers, her friends—were gone” (119). With the loss of her drawings of people on the street, her sister, and her friends in Galway, Mina feels a heightened sense of torture; in addition to losing her existing art, she has also lost the medium to create more, and this absence profoundly changes how she sees the world and impacts her identity as an artist.

This loss can be contrasted with the duplication of identities as Shine once again invokes the motifs of mirrors and doppelgängers to emphasize the baleful presence of the light-flooded coop and the unseen, malicious watchers. After a month of imprisonment, with the dominant aspect of the prison being its giant mirror wall, Mina “[has] grown so used to her own reflection that when the glass [is] transparent, she almost misse[s] that ugly other self, as though she [i]s one half of a complete person” (101). Notably, as she endures the visual doubling of herself in the mirror, she feels as if this omnipresent visual cuts her in half, lessening the essence of her identity. This dynamic bears philosophical similarities to Ciara’s emotions upon losing John, for she describes herself as “a soul dissevered, searching for its missing half” (142). Ciara’s loss of her husband makes her feel as if she, too, has been reduced to half of who she is. Thus, as time wears on, the identity-stealing abilities of the watchers—as well as the physicality of the mirrored prison—steadily rob the prisoners of their sense of self.

With each harrowing encounter with the watchers, Mina learns about their sinister nature, but it is not until she corners and questions Madeline that she learns more about these “changelings” who can look like anyone they are able to study. In other words, the watchers are doppelgängers. Madeline tells Mina that before the other prisoners arrived, when she was alone in the coop, the watchers “all looked like [her] […] Every last one of them” (140). While this admission does not provide the crucial information that Madeline is herself a watcher, Madeline’s detailed knowledge of the changelings indicates that she is more deeply involved in this affair than she would have the others believe. As the novel will eventually reveal, the other watchers consider Madeline to be an exile because of her ability to withstand the sun—an ability that they lack.

Shine also develops the theme of Gaining Strength From Found Family, particularly given the fact that Daniel first came to the forest because he was fleeing his home and looking for a new family. As he reflects, “He just wanted a home, somewhere safe, where he could be himself without some dirty hand always pushing or slapping him” (110). While Daniel does not find a safe place, he does find meaningful companions in the form of Ciara and Mina, who care for him like family should. However, in the process of forming close bonds for the sake of survival, the prisoners also lose vital aspects of themselves. For example, while Mina likes her home in Galway, her time trapped in the coop compels her to begin thinking of this prison as a “home,” and she becomes angry at herself whenever she makes this mental slip. Although Mina hates thinking of the coop as home, she does remain receptive to creating a new found family because she is unhappy with her biological family, and by the end of the novel, her found family becomes her philosophical “home.”

Throughout the challenges that the characters face, Shine continues to develop the symbolism of birds and compasses, and the author also adds new indications of the duality of darkness and light. The comparison between Mina’s parrot in its cage and the people in the coop draws attention to the fact that the four prisoners are caged “pets” in their own way. For example, when Daniel aligns himself with Madeline instead of Ciara when John’s doppelgänger comes to the door, this incident causes Ciara to reflect that Daniel is “more Madeline’s pet than hers now” (143). Additional symbolism arises as their confinement continues, as Daniel’s erratic moods are deliberately compared to a malfunctioning compass. The narrative makes this connection explicit when he runs away from Madeline, with her keys jangling like “a compass spinning in dizzying circles” (109). In this moment, he engages in a rash act that has no clear direction or purpose. Likewise, after Daniel locks Madeline and Mina out of the main room of the coop, the symbolism of darkness and light changes. The formerly traumatic light of the coop becomes a beacon of hope and safety that “dispel[s] the corridor of darkness” (120). By contrast, the living room where Mina and Madeline hide is invaded by watchers, and only by reaching the light will the prisoners regain their safety.