All Her Little Secrets

The Brethren Lapel Pin represents racism and white supremacy. Ellice first notices the lapel pin at Nate’s cocktail party, as “a red heart sitting across two intersecting gold flags” (79). When Ellice notices the matching lapel pins on the suits of two older board members, one of them immediately engages in an “example of polite racism” by asking Ellice the origin of her last name (79). Morris foreshadows the pin’s meaning, as every time Ellice notices it, the person wearing the pin discriminates against her in some way.’

When Ellice discovers that the pin is a racist dog whistle, she realizes that Jonathan, Max, and Hardy, are involved in the white supremacist hate group. The pin is used to explore the contradictory subtlety and blatancy of racism and white supremacy. Through the example of The Brethren, Morris reveals the hatred and destruction of implicit racism, as it harbors the underlying belief that people of color are inherently inferior to white people.

Chillicothe represents Ellice’s secrets and past traumas. Throughout the novel, Morris uses Chillicothe as a setting in Ellice’s flashbacks. The rural town consists of “shotgun houses and weed-covered yard,” a place that is quite different than Ellice’s condo in Atlanta (36).