A Great Reckoning

The map of Three Pines, eventually revealed to have been created by Marie Valois working under the pseudonym Antony Turcotte, is an important symbol in the novel. The map symbolizes parental love and care. Charpentier guesses that the map “was made for that young soldier […]. To remind him of home [and] to bring him home” (195), and this is theory is later confirmed when Gamache concludes that “she made them each a map, to take with them […]. So they could find their way home, and then she made another, so they could find her” (383). The map also symbolizes how love can endure even after great loss or pain; Valois lost all of her sons on the same day, resulting in grief so great that some claim they “could still hear her wail, years later” (382), yet she still saved the orienteering map and constructed an elaborate exercise to guide her sons to her new home if they ever came looking for her.

This symbolism of enduring parental love even in the face of loss reflects how Gamache continues to feel cherished and guided by his parents, even though he lost them decades ago.