Starling House

Many of the novel’s main characters are haunted by the events of their personal pasts as well as the history of their surroundings, and they each must learn to overcome these traumas and challenges in order to move forward and create a healthier future for themselves. Arthur in particular struggles with the history of the Wardens that have come before him. In the Underland, where his nightmares are manifested, Opal finds him continuing to fend off beasts while the bodies of the people who died because of him lie around him as a mute testimony to his sense of failure in life. Arthur is particularly haunted by the fact that his attempt to ignore the beasts inadvertently killed Opal’s mother, and he is still battling the guilt of this occurrence in the novel’s epilogue, proving that even in the most positive of cases, some regrets still linger. Opal is similarly haunted by her mother’s death, although her own guilt stems from the mistaken belief that she let go of her mother’s hand at a crucial moment, causing her to drown. Before she chooses to let go of this traumatic event, she concentrates on her misfortunes and current troubles just like Eleanor does. However, unlike Opal’s personal struggles, Eleanor’s inability to let go of the traumas of her own past has a much wider effect on the town, for the powers of the Underland allow her to manifest her rage and fury at Eden in the form of vengeful beasts. As a symbol, the Underland therefore represents all that Eleanor refuses to forget, yet Opal’s recognition that Eleanor deserves better than her past is what causes the beasts to disappear at the end of the novel. Thus, the narrative implies that only by successfully battling with past injuries and regrets can people eventually move on to a better future.

Perhaps even more relevant than the individual pasts of the characters is the collective and highly problematic history of Eden’s past participation in the enslavement of Africans and African Americans, for Gravely Power, the company that has made Eden what it is today, owes its financial success to the labor of enslaved people. As Opal notes, “When most people in Eden talk about their roots they’re waving rebel flags and making bullshit arguments about the Second Amendment” (86), and her comment makes it clear that she finds it difficult to build a home in a town with such a deeply racist history and culture, especially since the town’s racist ideals are still espoused by many of Eden’s citizens. When she and Eleanor discuss the “constellation of sins” (324) on which Eden was founded, Opal must consider the question of whether to “let [the original perpetrators’] descendants go unpunished” and allow them to “profit off their father’s and grandfather’s sins” (324). Opal does not suggest that she and Eleanor should forgive or forget this part of the past; however, she acknowledge that Eleanor’s determination to hold on to her rage is harming both herself and the rest of Eden. Once the characters of Starling House move on from their pasts, the beasts that hunt them in Eden begin to disappear, suggesting that their present and future is equally important to their past, if not more so.