theme

Solitude is one of the most pervasive themes of the novel, even showing up in the title. Jeff's response to the way his mother hurts him is to draw inside himself to hide, and protect his fragile heart. After his night spent alone on the island in South Carolina, Jeff feels like he has locked up all his memories of that day and night in a "room inside himself" and learned how to step inside that room and lock the door behind him.

The blue heron becomes a symbol of isolation throughout the novel. Jeff first sees the heron on his first trip home to Baltimore from a visit to Gambo and Melody, and he feels that the heron occupies "its own insignificant corner of the landscape in a timeless, long-legged solitude."