What is an example of motif in the novel, You Are Here?

Throughout the novel, walking acts as a motif for the individual’s personal growth, healing, and self-discovery journeys. The majority of the narrative plot line is inspired by Marnie and Michael’s Coast to Coast walk. Therefore they are almost constantly in a state of physical movement. The act of walking organically compels the characters into nature and in turn opens their bodies, hearts, and minds. For Michael, walking has long been a way for him to cope with his heartbreak and trauma. After the assault and after Natasha leaves, he takes “to setting out at dawn to remote spots to walk himself into exhaustion” (14). While Cleo thinks there is “something masochistic about these expeditions, medieval almost, the head-down trudge through wind and rain and fog,” Michael holds that walking “[c]lears the head” (14). This is why Michael walks ahead of the group at the start of their Coast to Coast adventure. He is accustomed to walking alone and losing himself in his surroundings and his thoughts. Doing so offers him a way to sort through his interiority uninhibited. However, once he has companions, he is compelled to use walking as a social engagement. Over the course of his and Marnie’s time walking together, he discovers that walking can be a form of connection, too.

For Marnie, walking is an entirely new activity that changes how she sees herself, thinks about her life, imagines her future, and communicates with others. While her and Michael’s “pilgrimage [lacks] a spiritual purpose,” it offers them “a deep immersion in the natural world” that brings them “peace of mind” (23). Marnie originally accepts Cleo’s invitation to take the Coast to Coast walk because she knows that if she does not do something to change her circumstances “the state might become permanent” (6). While walking, she is therefore fulfilling her promise to herself “to go outside” (6). Walking is an act of physical mobility, which in turn activates Marnie’s mind and heart. The more she walks, the more free she feels. In turn, her new openness influences Michael and helps him rediscover himself, too. In these ways, the scenes of the characters’ walking enact their desire and attempts to change.