49 pages • 1 hour read
Eight Hundred Grapes
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Symbols & Motifs
Synchronization
Synchronization is a motif throughout the narrative, often used as a guiding principle for how the Ford family believe that they come together. Dan suggests that synchronization isn’t to be confused with fate, as fate would determine a predestined ending—one in which circumstances and personal choices have no meaning or impact on one’s life. Instead of believing in a predetermined outcome, Dan and his family believe in the coming together of perfectly aligned parts that are incomplete without each other. It is the choice of aligning these separate elements, in other words, that allows for the perfect result: “Fate suggests no agency. Synchronization is all about agency. It involves all systems running in a state where different parts of the system are almost, if not precisely, ready” (14). For Dan, this is best expressed in how he approaches making biodynamic wine. As Georgia explains, it’s not just the grapes that matter; it’s all of their surrounding environment, too, that needs to thrive for the grapes to grow optimally: “He considered not just the grapes themselves, but—as he liked to espouse—the ecological, social, and economic systems that need to be synchronized in order to properly grow them” (14). The synchronous activity of the vineyard reflects the interpersonal relationships in the novel.
In relation to the characters, synchronization represents the alignment of an individual’s passions and desires with the right partners; it mitigates The Personal Cost of Following One’s Passion. Georgia believed herself in sync with Ben, yet ultimately their passions (for the vineyard and for Maddie, respectively) diverge. In this way, Georgia and Ben do not come together on equal footing, nor do they complete one another by choice, point made more obvious through the motif of synchronization.
The Yellow VW Buggy
The yellow Volkswagen buggy is a symbol used throughout the narrative of chosen love. For Dan and Jen, it is a metaphor for the journey they choose to take with each other, including a lifetime of hardships and happiness. Dan comes to forget about their devotion to one another that was ignited the moment they first met in the yellow VW buggy in New York. It is by renewing the sentiments that brought them together in the car decades later that they save their failing relationship. Dan vocalizes this at the harvest party: “‘Your father said the same thing he said when he got into my yellow buggy.’ ‘What was that?’ She [Jen] shrugged. ‘So, where are you taking me?’” (247). When Dan chooses to let Jen choose the destination, he chooses to prioritize their relationship.
Since the yellow buggy represents chosen love, it does not guarantee a happy ending, as Georgia comes to understand with Ben. Though she adamantly believed that “Ben was [her] yellow buggy” (107), in the end, she wasn’t his. His choices and dedication to his daughter alienate him from Georgia. Devoted as he is to his daughter, the planned journey he had with Georgia veers off course, and they amicably decide to go their separate ways.
Weather
Laura Dave uses weather as a motif used throughout the narrative to imply the unpredictable risks of failure associated with winemaking and, more broadly, pursuing one’s passion. Good weather is a vital part of viticulture, as grapes depend on appropriate sunlight, rain, and wind to grow and develop flavor. However, more than any other component in the growing process, weather is unmanageable and renders the winemaker helpless to its whims. Just as good weather was able to promote a solid foundation for The Last Straw to operate, it could just as easily take it away and inflict financial destitution. After two bad harvests from forceful rain and forest fires, the Fords were shaken to their core: “It was still hard to think about how awful those winters were. My parents had tried to shield us from how scared they were about losing everything they had built together” (35). These two instances of bad weather seeded what would eventually drive their family apart. It would drive Georgia to seek security in a different career path and compromise her identity; it would have her make her brothers sign a contract that they would never inherit the vineyard; and it would lead Dan and Jen to tie their whole lives to the vineyard.
Yet just as much as the unpredictable nature of the weather can destroy the vineyard, it can also be its saving grace. When the winemaker’s cottage catches on fire, it is the sudden rain from the storm (which only Jacob knew was coming) that saves the vineyard, even if it cost them half the Block 14 grapes. Though they have to be rebuilt and the vintage of that year isn’t as plentiful, these smaller sacrifices saved the integrity of the whole vineyard. Embracing the weather’s fickleness, in other words, is what cleans the slate and allows Georgia to take on The Last Straw as her own.
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