Life After Life

Sylvie names their home Fox Corner when she spots a vixen who has young kits, and the image represents Sylvie’s motherhood, what she believes is her destiny. Foxes often reappear as a symbol of predatory forces, for instance when they prey on the baby rabbits that Pamela and Ursula try to raise. More importantly, the foxes represent the family themselves—the Old English word “todde” meant a fox, so the link is in the name itself. Foxes symbolize not just Fox Corner but the life that the Todds are, in their various ways, fighting to protect. In one timeline, Sylvie feeds the fox, indicating her desire to nurture. In another timeline, Maurice shoots the fox, foreshadowing the feelings of attack that arise for Ursula when memories and premonitions from her past lives overwhelm her. This experience leads her to panic and think of herself as a fox without a hole (505), a natural creature with no escape from what surrounds her.

The snow is used in the book to mark Ursula’s new beginnings, providing a dramatic anchor for the plot, but the snow also signifies the freshness and innocence of each advent. The snow, like the cord around her neck, might stand for natural forces that work against human wishes, but it also becomes a soothing image.