The Wishing Game

A recurring motif in the novel is the quoting of literary sources in dialogue, usually by Jack. This motif upholds the overarching theme of The Value of Stories. When used in dialogues, these quotes underscore the importance of words and the stories one tells oneself about oneself. Jack, for instance, uses Arthur O’Shaughnessy’s first stanza of his Ode to describe to Hugo the greatness and perils of being an artist (as they both are). The quote is meant to inspire him so that he may do Jack’s book covers his own way instead of tailoring them to someone else’s ideas: “We are the music makers / And we are the dreamer of dreams, / Wandering by lone sea-breakers” (75). The phrase “cite your sources,” which both Jack and Hugo use, therefore, becomes synonymous with weighing how a person speaks, as when Lucy calls herself an emotional orphan. As she speaks ill of herself, Hugo stops her and asks her to cite her source so that she can determine if such words are truly what she thinks or what she’s been told to believe about herself:

‘We [Lucy and Sean] were so screwed up we belonged together.