The Winter Of Our Discontent

The family talisman in this novel refers specifically to a mysterious stone passed down through the generations. Believed to be originally from China, the stone is beautiful but unidentifiable. Ethan views it as a good luck charm. He instructs his children never to move it and closely analyzes Ellen as she caresses the stone while she sleepwalks. Ellen’s unconscious connection to the stone emphasizes the stone as inherently tied to the Hawley family and symbolizes its narrative importance. Ethan takes the stone on the day of his planned bank robbery. Because the robbery is thwarted, it can be proposed that the stone is not a talisman of good luck, but it can also be argued that the bank robbery was an impossibly foolish plan, so the stone’s luck was in its ability to thwart the robbery. The stone’s symbolic importance becomes clearer in the final chapter of the novel. Ellen, sensing her father’s distress, replaces the razor blades in his pockets with the family stone. The stone directly reconnects Ethan to his family, reminds him of his responsibilities to them and his love for them, and saves his life.