Lark & Termite: “Coral Gables was a reunification fantasy”

“Coral Gables was a reunification fantasy” (Phillips 25).

Throughout the novel, Florida is a symbol of flourishing. It is how Lola and Leavitt would have flourished if Leavitt had survived the war. They would have lived with Termite and brought Lark and Termite down to visit. Although this is not the reality with which Phillips presents us, she manages to reestablish Florida as this place of not only Lark and Termite reuniting with their roots but also to start a new utopian life in their own family unit with Solly providing a way for the readers to be satisfied in seeing Lark being able to have her own womanly life, yet with Termite still a part of it. Finally by the end of the novel the reader is freed from Florida as Gladdy’s “retirement home” and gets the ideal family he/she wished for in Florida at last, just in a roundabout and unexpected way nine years later (231).

Parental Figures and their Effect on Flourishing in Lark & Termite

The role of parental figures, present or absent, in this novel is central to its theme and the relationships of the novel. Most parental relationships in the novel are very atypical--from Lark’s concealed paternity, the absence of both parents in Termite’s case, Nick’s role as a single father, and even Leavitt’s lack of parental figures leads to many interesting events and makes for new replacement relationships. From the beginning of Lark’s life, Lola establishes parenthood as a gift and intended Lark because it was “the only way [Nonie and Charlie] will ever have a child” (149). She also wills Termite to “Lark’s baby… for Lark’s sake” (210). Nonie eventually takes on this view as well, when Gladdy dies Nonie cries at Gladdy’s loss because “she never enjoyed [Lark], never cared,” and never got to reap the joy of parenthood (208).

Readers characterize characters including Gladdy, Nonie, Charlie, Lola, and even Lark by their parental qualities, both positive and negative. Gladdy is one of the only present biological figures in the novel and she is portrayed as overbearing and cruel, illustrating that parenthood does not have to be based on genetics. The constant conflict between Nonie and Gladdy establishes them as foil characters and highlights the positive maternal characteristics of Nonie which are only magnified in Lark and her eternal patience, love, and understanding for Termite. Even Lola is shown as a good mother despite her absence as she goes through many logical and detailed steps to ensure the baby’s well-being before she takes her own life. The fact that she could have taken the baby with her and didn't because “she knew better” allows the reader to feel more favorably about her (233). She had a great understanding of Termite, like Lark does, knowing “how to sense him” and seeing him “move his fingers every moment he’s awake” (254).

Finally, even more emphasis is placed on the role of parents by Phillips use of the orange cat and Robert Stamble to embody phantoms of Termite’s parents, Lola and Bobby. This perpetuates the theme that the parental experiences that shape a person remain with them and continue to affect their happiness and ability to flourish whether their parents do or not. Character’s most central life decisions are often time based on their parental upbringings. Leavitt, for example, is drawn to Lola because she is older and reminds him of the mother figure which he lost-“” Furthermore, in  giving her his mother’s derringer, a symbol of his mother, with which Lola ends her own life and makes her ultimate choice to domino effect of parenthood continues affecting Termite and Lark now as well as they have mortally lost their mother.

The novel even concludes with the motif of parenthood: in returning to Lark and Termite to their mother’s house, Phillips concludes the novel with a sense of equilibrium as the protagonists return to their roots, in the form of their own little parental model (Solly and Lark in the parental roles over Termite).

Breaking Ground: Lark and Termite

          Instead of providing some sort of introduction or preface to her novel, Jayne Anne Phillips chooses to open Lark and Termite by shipping the readers out just as Corporal Robert Leavitt had been in December ’49. Phillips immediately associates Leavitt with his loved ones (no doubt central to his happiness and ability to flourish) by introducing that Leavitt’s baby is growing “inside Lola’s sex” (Phillips 3). Phillips also vaguely introduces Leavitt’s early loss of his mother, illustrating the loss of one of his former sources of happiness as well as why he so desperately needs the baby and Lola and why “he wasn’t leaving her, [why] he never would, not really” because he had already experienced loss in his life (3). Leavitt even “tells himself that he won’t need any telegram” when the baby arrives because he feels such a strong connection and need for his wife and unborn child that it is like Lola “is standing there in the war next to him” (4). Leavitt “uses her words that were sex and song a year ago to keep his feet moving” (19). 

          This refusal to separate from Lola and the unborn child is illustrated in this opening passage as Leavitt “imagines his baby moving in a fluid, muscular nest he couldn’t touch or feel” but he could keep connected to in his thoughts and dreams (3). Phillips continues to illustrate the devotion of Leavitt’s mindset to his loved ones through the diction used by the narrator, posing a subtle yet striking comparison of the baby to the American military and “its own small fist” (3). By opening the novel with the account of Leavitt, who will be revealed as Termite’s father, the reader’s form a strong connection with Leavitt in response to his strong connection with his loved ones as well as his desire to return to them. His optimism is infectious and allows the reader to empathize with him as a character especially as it becomes obvious that their “plans and schemes” of reunification were “laughable” because “no one is getting out of Korea, not for years” (22). 

This revelation combined with the suggested death of Corporal Leavitt upon the arrival of the planes at the conclusion of the first chapter allows the reader’s to transfer their empathy to Lola and Leavitt’s son. In portraying Leavitt helping the village girl despite his orders to “monitor [and] not assist” leading up to his implied demise upon the approach of the enemy planes, Phillips establishes Leavitt as a heroic character, allowing the reader to form a solid relationship with him, caring for his loved ones as greatly as he does. For this reason, when Termite is introduced and suggested to be Leavitt’s son, the reader quickly rejoices that he is alive and happy. An immediate relationship which may not have been as easily formed without the presence of Leavitt’s preceding chapter because Termite could easily be perceived as merely a handicapped hinderance on the success and flourishing of his hardworking and kind half-sister, Lark.