The Unmarked, Backwards Grave: Symbolism in Wolf in the Sanctuary

I rarely talk about symbolism in my books. That’s for the readers to decipher. After all, what is symbolic to me might not have the same meaning for a reader. And yes, your English teachers were often basing what they taught you on some scholar’s opinion of what the “symbols” of a text actually are.

But there is one thing I want to talk about because the research for it was particularly interesting. And that was the west-facing gave with the inverted cross at the edge of the Belle Rivière churchyard by the ruins of the old St. Germaine chapel.

At the farthest edge of the churchyard, where the land slumped into the water, an unmarked grave, facing west, lay beneath a truly bald cypress. No one in Belle Rivière remembered ever seeing needles grow on its drooping branches, but without its presence, the location of this grave would have long ago been forgotten. No stone, no name. Just an inverted cross of wood sinking into a patch of earth where nothing grew. Birds and insects never crawled or flew over the earth, and nutria, alligators, and snakes either crawled or slithered far out of their path to avoid being near it.

Now, this is obviously a fictional small town, but I did do a lot of research and drew on some “truths” I’ve grown up hearing. Growing up, I was always told that when the grave faced the west in a cemetery, so that the dead would rise with their backs to Christ and the Sun at the Resurrection, it was because the person was a heretic. Turns out, that’s not exactly true. There are a lot of reasons for a burial to be facing west—even some clergy choose to be buried that way so they can lead their congregations at the Resurrection.

But the idea of a backwards grave stuck with me, and so I used it for one particular grave.

I also chose to have two items mark the grave: a cypress tree that remains without needles and an inverted wooden cross. The cypress tree, which is common to the Louisiana bayou, was selected to be without its needles, regardless of season, to symbolize the idea that the town continued existing but not living, not thriving. Like the tree, the town was in a liminal space between life and death, between forgiveness and damnation. And then there’s the inverted cross. No, this isn’t the cross of St. Peter. I chose this for its more contemporary associations with blasphemy and all things unholy. Taken together, this trio of images are meant to convey the message that whoever is buried there is not a good person (at least by the standards of those in town…)

There is also more symbolism and references to folklore involved in that specific grave, but those will only be found by reading Wolf in the Sanctuary, releasing on 10 June.

-Robin