This feels somewhat at odds with a lot of the things we are taught about the pursuit of happiness. *Im sure if I actually came face to face with a polar bear I would NOT want polar bears. In one life, she is a rock-star. from St. And that chaos builds with every single move you make., When you stay too long in a place, you forget just how big an expanse the world is. You are giving up at the worst possible moment. Love it. We dont know how she will spend it or who she will spend it with. She later reappears as a The last date is today's A pawn is a queen-in-waiting. 1614 Words7 Pages. Nora returns to her old life because she has a renewed sense of possibility. Work hard at it. In these depictions, the image of a chessboard is used to illustrate the idea that life is full of variable outcomes. Maybe that was the only meaning that mattered. It made me realise how, over the last year, cut off from most of my usual activities and social interactions, my range of emotions has shrunk. After a particularly bad day, she decides that she no longer wants to keep living. The novel opens with her playing chess with Nora and talking about the possibilities of life. "The Midnight Library - Themes" eNotes Publishing What she means is that often making a single small adjustment can permanently alter the course of a life. And don't give a second thought when people mock it or ridicule it. Going to go away and think about that. Aim to be you. This brainy, captivating pleasure read feels like what you might get if TVsTheGood Placecollided withWhered You Go, Bernadette. People, Clever, emotional and thought-inspiring. Jenny Colgan, author ofThe Bookshop on the Corner, Amazing and utterly beautiful,The Midnight Libraryis everything youd expect from the genius storyteller who is Matt Haig. Joanna Cannon, author ofThe Trouble with Goats and Sheep, Noras life is burdened by regrets. Discuss the theme of childhood as presented in "Games at Twilight" by Anita Desai. Nora's cat's name is Voltaire, and this alludes to both the philosopher himself and his character Dr. Pangloss, who says that he lives in the best of all possible worlds. There is also a dog named Plato in the story, and indeed, Nora is searching for the ultimate reality. It's you, Nora. In The Midnight Library, thirty-five-year-old Nora finds out from a handsome young surgeon, Ash, that her beloved cat has been killed. She takes a bottle, hoping to die, but wakes up at midnight in a massive library. Then, she is fired from her job of At the beginning of the story, Nora feels completely trapped in her bad circumstances. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. It was weird, to have your own body offer clues to a mystery. Easy to wish we'd worked harder, loved better, handled our finances more astutely, been more popular, stayed in the band, gone to Australia, said yes to the coffee or done more bloody yoga. A connection between herself and the world. That idea of a root life is one of the central metaphors of the story. The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly. But there is no life where you can be in a state of sheer happiness for ever. Containing every regret Nora has had in her 35 years of life, this book allows Nora to pinpoint choices in her life she wishes to undo and guide her towards a life in which she did the exact opposite. . InThe Midnight Library, Matt Haigs enchanting new novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. In her present life, she wonders what might have happened if she had gone through with her engagement to Dan. In this storyline, she owns a pub with her husband Dan. "This is the best life," she told herself, a little desperately now. With our Essay Lab, you can create a customized outline within seconds to get started on your essay right away. Dan is Nora's ex-fianc. In Matt Haigs The Midnight Library, Nora is a woman in her thirties who feels as if her life has been full of regrets and sadness, and her future looks dismal. Melendez, John. She begins to reflect on the nature of success and she finds that even in her most glamorous or widely admired lives there is still disappointment and sadness. The novel alludes to Henry David Thoreau, too, whose writings guide Nora to understand the difference between loneliness and solitude. The Midnight Library study guide contains a biography of Matt Haig, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. It is also important in that it depicts Mrs. Elm trying to show Nora the value and importance of her life. But in her life as a competitive swimmer, he is alive. She loves this life and finds herself feeling both content and fulfilled, working on a book about Thoreau and spending time with her daughter. Remember how much you wanted life.". We don't have to hear every piece of music in the world to understand music. Between stacks of bookshelves again. Maybe that was the only meaning that mattered. That is not to say that The Midnight Library is a miss. Haig bases The Midnight Library around one central theme and a common human curiosity: what is the purpose of life? Shes been an Olympian, a dog-walker, and a glassblower. Then she wakes up in a mysterious library filled with books of other lives she might have led and an invitation from the librarian, Mrs. Elm, to enter their pages. Writing from lived experience, Haig is right to critically examine the efficacy of powerful medication; however, in a book that treats every other aspect of mental health with such compassion, it is disappointing to find an implicit disregard for what is, for many who battle with suicidal urges, a life-saving and life-maintaining treatment. A few chapters later, Noras cat dies, she loses her job, her The Midnight Library is available from NLB Overdrive and copies can also be bought from retailers such as Amazon. The excess of fame emphasizes his substance abuse problems to the point of fatality. Its a beautiful thing. The talented aspiring Olympic swimmer turned aspiring rock star now aspires only to stop living. In this library, Nora Seed finds endless books which contain different versions of the life she could have lived. It is like stage fright only worse, for Nora can never really get off the stage of her own life. The narrator knows all the thoughts and feelings of the protagonist, Nora, but not of any of the other characters. He is depicted as pushing her to work hard and pressuring her to try to compete in the Olympics. Endorse it. One evening, she decides to put herself out of her misery and end it all. In this timeline, she is happily married to Ash, a surgeon who is her neighbor in her real life. WebSymbolism In Night By Elie Wiesel. "The Midnight Library Quotes and Analysis". Already a member? Then she wakes up in a mysterious library filled with books of other lives she might have led and an invitation from the librarian, Mrs. Elm, to enter their pages. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss thenovel. Mrs. Elm is her guide, a figure of authority but also of companionship and wisdom. The only reason Nora didnt end up living one of those lives instead of the life she recently chose to end is because of the choices she made leading up to the present moment. However, as this moment reveals, she comes to find that this life too has its shortcomings. Regardless of their genre, his writing explores the many elements that impact a persons satisfaction with life. At the beginning of the story, Nora is playing chess with Mrs. Elm, who remarks to her that her life is full of possibility. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. The library offers her the chance to reflect on her life and her regrets and to try different lives, lives where shed made different choices. Cooper, James ed. She has a difficult relationship with her brother and feels generally detached from the world around her. The feeling she experiences is envy: she is jealous of the cat's complete absence of pain. Nora's inner landscape is artfully rendered on the page: She was afraid of motherhood.The fear of deeper depression. I felt my gut wrench as I read this sentence never before has a writer so perfectly captured my experience of the power of mental illness to haunt and destabilise, to instill a fear of further suffering. On a beautiful page titledExpectation, Nora imagines What it would be like to accept herself completely, every mistake she had made every dream she hadn't reached. She is a woman in her thirties, who leads a life she finds lonely and disappointing. TW: This article discusses suicide, suicidal ideation, antidepressants and self-harm, We first meet Nora Seed, nineteen years before she decides to die, as she plays chess in the school library with Mrs Elm, the matter-of-fact school librarian. Mrs. Elm is the librarian from Nora's elementary school days. WebThat is not to say that The Midnight Library is a miss. The citation above will include either 2 or 3 dates. eNotes.com, Inc. What does the chessboard symbolize in the novel? Throughout the novel, Nora contemplates the meaning of life in terms that are often influenced by major figures of Western philosophy. That the prison wasn't the place, but the perspective., The thing that looks the most ordinary might end up being the thing that leads you to victory., Regrets dont leave. After being able to see many different iterations of her life, and the impact her choices can have, she realizes there is still so much she can do to make her life better. Not affiliated with Harvard College. In fact, in her life as a rock star and her life as a competitive swimmer, she has severe mental health struggles and some fractured personal relationships. Easy to wish we'd developed other other talents, said yes to different offers. "A Conversation About Rain" to "The Chessboard", "The Only Way to Learn Is to Live" to "System Error", Read the Study Guide for The Midnight Library. "This is the best life. WebThe midnight library represents a chance for Nora to erase her regrets. Symbolism is especially heavy in this story. She fights for her life and succeeds in throwing up the pills she took earlier that night. It is odd because she is still herself but finds that everything about her life, down to the shape of her abs and the smoothness of her face, varies from life to life. What does the library symbolize in The Midnight Library? WebThe Midnight Library According to Mrs. Elm , the Midnight Library is the physical embodiment of a state between life and deathan in-between state. Best summary PDF, themes, and quotes. Self-harm is discussed throughout the novel, with calmness and grace, as Haig describes the tell-tale scar lines that Nora notices on her body in some of the different lives that she enters. But it is boring. You might not be uplifted by Nora Seed, but the book deals with some dark themes in a quirky and sensitive manner, and for that, I would suggest you keep it in your reading list, albeit closer to the bottom than the top. When she loses momentum, she then finds herself stuck in situations that foster situational depression. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. The library allows Nora to reverse her regrets and pursue different iterations of her existence. Not affiliated with Harvard College. And Aim to look and act and think like you. Maybe that was the only meaning that mattered. "A Conversation About Rain" to "The Chessboard", "The Only Way to Learn Is to Live" to "System Error", Read the Study Guide for The Midnight Library. As Nora watches the lives of those around her change shape in accordance with the fluctuating circumstances of reality, she comes to realize that the motivations of those around her are as genuine and complex as her own. Copyright 1999 - 2023 GradeSaver LLC. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. The main themes in The Midnight Library are choice and regret, philosophy and the meaning of life, and relationships and forgiveness. It is about a young woman named Nora Seed, who lives a monotonous, ordinary life and feels "And Nora smiled as she stared at all the pieces she still had left in play, thinking about her next move.". It means lack. This would not have been a problem had there been more to the main character. As the main character, Nora Seed, traverses through her different life possibilities, the library becomes the main place where she returns to reflect upon the paths she could have chosen. Eventually, Nora finally slips into a life shed like to stay in. Throughout The Midnight Library, Noras relationships with those around her fluctuate as she shifts from life to life. The novel opens with her playing chess with Nora and talking about the possibilities of life. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place. Start your 48-hour free trial to get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts. WebThe library is a symbol of possibilities and choices. She now has a This moment has a mixed tone, as it celebrates the fact that Nora has chosen to stay in her life but points out the slight comedy of her triumph coming in the form of "vomiting all over her duvet." This is a moment late in the book in which Mrs. Elm informs Nora that the library will cease to exist if she dies. The basic premise is that a woman called Nora decides to kill herself, and before she dies she finds herself in the Midnight Library. You dont need to be famous or rich or medal winning to lead a spectacular life. . "The Midnight Library Essay Questions". As a consequence of her self-critical thoughts, Nora overdoses and is surprised to find herself in the library, where the time on her watch is stuck at midnight. She explains how dissatisfied she is to the world in one final Facebook post before attempting suicide. Knowing now that her choices can have a dramatic and unforeseen impact, she feels more hopeful about how much she can change things. Nora then begins to hop from universe to universe, testing out these alternative realities. eNotes.com Love and laughter and fear and pain are universal currencies. If there are two dates, the date of publication and appearance This moment comes immediately after Nora escapes the library with the Book of Regrets. Fine is keeping yourself in check, being cautious, not using your heart and your mind to its full potential. And with all the knowledge she gained from jumping to and from the many lives she could have potentially lived, Nora is determined to make her current reality one she would check out from The Midnight Library., About Annenberg Media All we know is shes been given a second chance, one she fought desperately for towards the end of the novel. "You know what the matter is. However, death is not that simple, as Nora embarks on a journey of other potential lives she could have lived. Finally, there are plenty of allusions in this novel. B) It foreshadows Noras tragic death. Yet Nora is not particularly tragic or heroic, so I found that I couldnt connect with her, which is a shame because there are no true secondary characters in the novel. He just makes the whole thing soeasy. Once a gifted swimmer and musician, she currently works in a music shop and gives piano lessons. Mired in this repeating pattern, regret becomes the predominant emotion in Noras life. We don't have to have tried every variety of grape from every vineyard to know the pleasure of wine. And yet the moment you make a move on that board, things change. "Doing one thing differently is often the same as doing everything differently.". TW: mentions of suicide ideation and attempted suicide, Somewhere between life and death, Nora Seed finds herself wandering the marble hallways of a never-ending library; The Midnight Library.. When I started reading The Midnight Library I figured I knew exactly what was coming its a lesson in living life with no regrets, of not always wishing the grass was greener or imagining what your life might be like if only. Before the midnight library, she never took the time to evaluate what she really wants or Haig himself is an accomplished writer, and his books have been very successful in approaching the darker themes of mental illness, regret and death, often in unique ways. As a reviewer, my own lived experience with existential depression and suicidal ideation meant that I faced this book with a tightness in my chest. 4 Mar. This means that the novel can Cloud State University M.A. It is easy to mourn the lives we aren't living. Melendez, John. You get the flow of the story quickly Nora reflects on a key milestone or regret, she makes a decision, and she experiences the consequences of that choice. Log in here. Maybe even the most seemingly perfectly intense or worthwhile lives ultimately felt the same. eNotes Editorial, 19 Feb. 2022, https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-literary-devices-are-used-in-the-midnight-3023590. Brilliant point . She is described as a sweet and happy child. When Nora tries to kill herself, she ends up in a library with Mrs. Elm, the school librarian she knew in her childhood. Sometimes if we fill that lack with something else the original want disappears entirely., You see, doing one thing differently is very often the same as doing everything differently., And even if you were a pawn - maybe we all are - then you should remember that a pawn is the most magical piece of all. It is easy to mourn the lives we There are lives where you make different choices. Life isnt about being fine though it it? Nora thought 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived.