The Winter People

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes reference to child death.

The engraved bone ring is a recurring motif throughout The Winter People that connects the past timeline with the present-day timeline. The bone ring is originally owned by Auntie. She tells Sara that the symbols on it mean “that life is circle” (10). The novel initially suggests that the bone ring is cursed. Sara becomes convinced that Auntie’s spirit haunts the family after her husband Martin unearths the ring. She directs him to rebury it so that “[they]’ll get [their] Gertie back” (43). This imbues a mystical quality to the ring, an implication that is strengthened when Gary finds the ring in a box he purchases at an antiques store in the Adirondacks. Afterwards, as recounted by his wife Katherine, Gary becomes increasingly withdrawn and then dies in a car accident. It seems as if the ring has had some kind of magical effect on Gary.

However, the reality of the ring is much more banal. Auntie’s spirit was not summoned by the excavation of the ring; she is still alive and she uses the ring to frame Martin for Gertie’s murder. There is no indication the ring had anything to do with Gary’s accident, as he was instead withdrawing because he was obsessed with the possibility of resurrecting his dead son Austin using the instructions he found in the box.