The Skeleton Tree

Hundreds of miles southwest of the Alaskan coast lie the islands of Japan. Two years before the novel’s events, a tsunami hit Japan, causing carnage and chaos. By the time Chris and Frank are stranded in the wild, the shore is littered with debris from the incident, and more washes up after every storm. Chris is moved by a young girl’s purse that Frank brings to the cabin. To Chris, the purse symbolizes a life that was lost. Chris imagines the girl whose life the tsunami suddenly and tragically took. He buries the purse, but it represents the girl, and Chris feels compelled to put her to rest. Throughout the novel, Chris finds other items belonging to Japanese children, all of which he buries with reverence and pain. All these items symbolize lives lost to tragedy. For Chris, whose father died (apparently in a car accident) and whose uncle died a year later in a sailing accident, tragic loss is no stranger. He understands how difficult it is to lay a person to rest after a sudden and horrible loss. He didn’t get to see his father’s coffin lowered into the ground and lacked closure as a result.