44 pages • 1 hour read
Sheila TurnageThree Times Lucky
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2012A 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
Tupelo Landing (Small-Town Life)
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.
In Tupelo Landing, everyone knows each other and supports one another. Mo notes how this can be either a good or bad thing, depending on a person’s perspective: “Miss Lana says the good thing about living in a small town is everybody knows your business, and they pitch in. The Colonel says the bad thing about living in a small town is everybody knows your business, and they pitch in. It cuts both ways” (35).
In the town, life is predictable and slow. Therefore, when a detective shows up announcing a murder, it puts everyone on edge. People are initially unwelcoming of Detective Starr and suspicious of his intentions. Turnage uses a simile to describe the growing sense of claustrophobia, a simile being where something is compared to something else using “like” or “as.” In this case, the townspeople watch one another more than ever, revolving “around each other like planets around an invisible sun” (159). During the investigation, the town wants to know everything that’s going on, and Mo falls into the capable hands of Miss Rose when Miss Lana and the Colonel go missing. Though the town’s residents can feel too close for comfort, they also act like a supportive and loving safety net.
Hurricanes
In the story, hurricanes represent renewal and change. A hurricane brought both Mo and the Colonel into Tupelo Landing, and it’s as if that is where they were always meant to be. Mo was born during a hurricane and was found by the Colonel, who lost his memory after crashing into a tree.
Mo’s recollection of the day of her birth is almost mythical, as if she came from somewhere beyond: “I was born […] during one of the meanest hurricanes in history. That night as people slept, they say, the rivers rose like a mutiny and pushed ashore, shouldering houses off foundations, lifting the dead from graves, gulping down lives like fresh-shucked oysters” (29). Similarly, when the Colonel writes about that night, his words are filled with drama: “I awakened in a wrecked car, in a raging storm, my head howling. Winds roared. Trees fell. Worlds drowned” (220).
A hurricane blows into Tupelo Landing at the same time that Mr. Jesse’s murder begins to unfold, illustrating the stormy and tumultuous nature of events. The hurricane and murder plot coincide in the climax. Against the backdrop of the hurricane, the townspeople demonstrate their resilience and sense of community. They band together to survive the rage of the storm, both literally and metaphorically.
The Message Bottles
The message bottles are a symbol of attempted connection. Mo creates them for her “Upstream Mother” in the hope that her mother will find them and Mo. Despite the fact that Mo already has a family, she longs to know what her biological mother is like and where she came from. Mo sometimes dreams that she finds a bottle that her mother sent her but cannot make out what the message says: “I woke up once, dreaming my old dream. The one where I’m standing in a creek, and a bottle bobs by. I shake the message out, my heart pounding. But, like always, the words blur before I can read them” (193). Mo’s dream represents the fact that she knows absolutely nothing about her Upstream Mother; she has no way of even imagining what she might say.
After Miss Lana is taken, Mo’s messages change from ones that search for her biological mother to ones that search for her found mother instead. She writes notes hoping that whoever finds them will know where Miss Lana is and can bring her home. She realizes that the family she has now matters more than the family she may have lost.
