The Mysteries of Stitch, Essay Example

The story, Stitch by Terry Rowling contains many mysteries. Each of the mysteries attracts a number of possible resolutions. Additionally, each puzzle has evidence behind it in the story. The first mystery relates to the death of Bella’s parents. The story begins with a situation whereby Bella is very nervous go about upstairs for fear of meeting Stitch. An indication is also given that she is very afraid of talking about her dead parents especially where discussions of their favorite photos are concerned.

Although uncle Sal seems to be very avuncular of late, the fact that Stitch is upstairs makes Bella perceive her uncle as a mere conspirator. This adds to the Stitch mystery rather than resolving it. It is mysterious that at this point, Bella remembers about a story where a witch is involved. Does Stitch represent a witch? The name of the story is Hansel and Gretel.

The old sampler that is in the toilet upstairs has its contribution to the mystery of Stitch. It is not clear why Bella had to visit this toilet in order to see the old sampler. She describes each of the visits she has been making to the toilet as being extremely horrifying. It is clear that Aunt Inga has many cross stitch pieces, and the old sampler is the one that Bella likes most. This means that Stitch is a man-thin that represents a horrifying element that Bella has equally mysterious connections with.

The embroideries form images of people who are as mysterious as the image of Stitch. Aunt Inga says they resemble two Dutch children walking up the road. As the story comes to a close, Bella kills both Aunt Inga and uncle Sal. She says that she did it so that ‘the children’ could live in peace. This is where the resolution for this mystery comes about; Bella believes in supernatural powers, which, she believes, have the power to wipe out the feeling of guilt she has towards the death of her parents, whose bodies were never even recovered. The reader is even tempted to think that Bella could have been responsible for her parent’s deaths and she merely killed her aunt and uncle as a cover-up measure.

The second mystery is about Stitch. Bella has been adding extra locks to her green door for fear of Stitch, whom she likes referring to as the jagged man. The man is made up of seventy and a half stitches. This creates many illusions in the mind of the reader. Bella believes that stitch is the only person who has stood behind her all days, a demon that even made her paint her door green, in appreciation to myths that indicate that green doors always make demons stay away from ones home.

Bella knows that if she tells Inga and Sal that she is being sentimental about going upstairs to see the Stitch, they will be happy about it. This is the most convincing indication that these two relatives of Bella perceive the Stitch very differently from her. Dowling writes to show that when she finally manages to kill both of these relatives, she is happy to embrace the Stitch, “in the interest of all children” (5). The obvious conclusion here is that Inga and Sal were against the interests of children, as far as Bella is concerned, and that there is something about Stitch that makes him represent some form of liberation.

The communication between Bella and Stitch, though surreal, sheds a lot of light on the nature of Stitch. In his own words, the ‘man-thing’ as he is described in the story, “is not complete until Bella has passed him through the green doors of her home and used the cistern to kill Aunt Inga and Uncle Sal. This signifies that Stitch could be a representation of difficulties that could have been perpetuated by these Bella’s uncle and aunt, which could have caused the deaths of Bella’s parents. If this is the case, Stitch signifies the ghosts of Bella’s parents, who have been seeking revenge since Bella was eight years, when her parents died and their bodies never recovered.

Since stitch has been a source of consternation and horror to Bella since her parents’ death, this is the main reason why she has always considered herself responsible for their deaths. In a way, her uncle and aunt may have contributed to the entrenchment of this mindset, albeit in a friendly manner.

The third mystery is that of Bella’s memories in the hands of Stitch in the bathroom. In the memories, Stitch insists that Bella must take the cistern, a scene that repeats itself some moments before she kills Inga and Sal. In Datlow and Windling’s view, this means that she has been struggling with the thought of killing these two relatives for a very long time (52). The memories of how close she got to doing it in the past always send a chill down his spine.

All along, observes Gelder, Sal and Inga have been opposed to the idea of Bella taking away Stitch (54). The sudden change of heart by Sal makes Bella think that Sal could have been an accomplice. An accomplice to what? The answer to this question means a lot in the way the mystery of Bella memories is resolved. The main concern for Bella is safety of the children. The children she is referring to could be the ones that she remembers walking up the street many years ago, with their mother sticking her head out of the window, perhaps telling them to be wary of strangers.

As the story draws to a close, the mystery of Bella’s memories are resolved as she kills Aunt Inga and Uncle Sal. In fact the last thing that Sal sees before is Bella’s parents, her boyfriend, Benny and herself, all of them seated on comfortable chairs. For this reason, it is clear that aunt Inga and Uncle Sal are the villains in the story. More importantly, the memories of Bella are tied up with the seventy and a half stitches that made Stitch the jagged man that he was.

Additionally, observes Verso, the concept of broken glass and a tiny, very helpless figure is introduced as the story draws to a close (35). All along, Stitch was being depicted as the villain, a demon. All of a sudden, everything has changed and he is the newest hero, being introduced even after Bella’s parents, Benny and Roger. He is definitely set to take the place of the relatives who have been killed. According to this explanation, it seems that they the murders were committed for a worthy cause, that of restoring Bella’s relatives, who had been unjustly robbed from her. In fact, it is the memories of their death that would not let her live in peace.

In conclusion, the story ends all the three mysteries are solved. First, that uncle Sal and Aunt Inga had a hand in the death of Bell’s parents, second, that Bella’s nagging memories and fear of Stitch were a call to duty: to avenge her parent’s deaths, and thirdly, that Stitch represents the immortal man-thing that convinces Bella to do what she has to do in order to save her parents and the children.

Works Cited

Dowling, Terry. Stitch. 15 Feb 2010. <http://www.terrydowling.com/PDF/Stitch.pdf>

Gelder, Ken. The Oxford Book of Australian Ghost Stories, Sydney: Routledge, 1996.

Verso, Jo. World of Cross Stitches, Boston: David &Charles Publishers, 2000

Datlow, Ellen and Windling, Terri. The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror: Sixteenth Annual Collection, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003