52 pages • 1 hour read
Restore Me
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Symbols & Motifs
Hair
In Restore Me, Juliette and Warner both cut their hair, dramatic changes that take their long locks into short buzz cuts. For Warner, this arises as an element of practicality after Kenji botches cutting his hair in the first chapters. Though Warner snipes at Kenji for the error, the fact that he allowed it in the first place foreshadows the nascent friendship that emerges between them over the course of the novel. This friendship, like the haircut, does not go right when Juliette is forcing the two people she loves together. After shaving off the damaged cut, Warner finds himself surprised to find his hair shorter than he expected. He repeatedly runs his fingers through it, only to find he does not have enough length to do so. This reveals a nervous tic that Warner did not previously recognize. The soothing motion thus becomes, for Warner, a shocking moment, where he realizes both that he needs soothing and that he cannot have it. The haircut for Warner thus symbolizes the increased chaos in his life and the loss of his previous mechanisms for managing that chaos.
Meanwhile, Juliette cuts off all her hair on a drunken impulse later in the novel. While Warner fears this is indicative of self-harm, Juliette loves her new look. Warner’s reaction thus reveals his feelings toward his haircut, rather than Juliette’s motives for her own. She feels bold and brave for cutting her hair, something that recalls her tendency to hide behind her long locks in Shatter Me and parts of Unravel Me. While she began sporting a ponytail as her confidence increased, this haircut shows that her power is growing, despite her doubts about her abilities. Juliette now not only chooses not to hide behind her hair, but she has also made it impossible to do so. This indicates that, despite her struggles with reconciling her past and present, Juliette will not return to the scared girl she once was.
Foreign Languages
Over the course of the novel, Juliette and Kenji learn that the other supreme commanders’ children have all been educated to speak multiple languages. When they first encounter this ability in Warner, they are impressed—their own educations were limited while fighting against totalitarian rule. As Warner effortlessly reveals more linguistic knowledge, however, and as the other supreme commanders’ children are shocked to learn that Juliette only speaks English, Juliette becomes increasingly insecure about her monolingual abilities.
The ability to speak multiple languages is not necessarily a skill that Juliette needs or desires. Instead, it becomes representative of her overall readiness for leadership in a complex political sphere, or lack thereof. This unreadiness is, in turn, tied to a classical education, the very type of education that The Reestablishment has made illegal for all but its most privileged children. The ability to speak multiple languages therefore highlights the hypocrisy of The Reestablishment and the confounding political miasma in which Juliette finds herself, which is as incomprehensible to her as any of the foreign languages that she does not speak.
Juliette’s Journals
Juliette’s journals, an important motif in Shatter Me and Unravel Me, reappear in Restore Me after being relatively absent from Ignite Me, the third book in the series. The journals emerge therefore as a symbol that speaks to Juliette’s contexts across books, and which changes as Juliette changes, too. In this book, the journals highlight that Juliette’s past is part of her, something that she needs to contend with even as she desires to leave it behind. This parallels how the assumed truths of Juliette’s childhood are actually false; therefore, she must handle both what she remembers and the memories that have been taken from her. The journals also foreshadow some of Juliette’s screaming ability, which she doesn’t discover until late in Restore Me. Her failure to recognize these abilities before they result in disaster—as she kills hundreds of people with her lethal scream, something The Reestablishment evidently planned—indicates that ignoring this past risks more than just Juliette’s emotional health. It also leads her to disregard important details that might help her become a stronger leader, if she heeds them properly.
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By Tahereh Mafi
