eberry shrubs and random beach grasses and driftwood. “I arise at first light with the sound of the ocean in my suite… and feel as if I have invited the sand inside. As the great orb rises, I take my coffee out to my private deck and stare at this glorious panorama before I actually commit words to paper” (15). This setting creates a feeling of peace, a place where Isabel has ultimately retreated to and where Harriet is well on her way to. The enormous house gives Harriet the mood of Isabel and while making her at peace with herself, also intimidates her. The theme of Isabel’s Bed is that once a person accepts life, everything else falls into place. Harriet always had trouble writing because it was something she was forcing herself to do. She never sat and thought about whether she was a good writer or not. Once she realized she wasn’t, she was able to concentrate on finding something that she enjoyed. Harriet also never considered that she didn’t have to stay in her relationship for the rest of her life, and once she accepted their break-up, she immediately found a new love. This book has used the contrast between Isabel and Harriet to tell the story and that contrast also carries through to the theme. Isabel had long accepted her imperfections and had found what made her happy and made her feel beautiful. She ended up living in a huge house, with lots of money, and felt like she was worth all the credit she gave herself. The one thing in life that Harriet let carry itself was getting to Isabel’s. At the beginning of the book, a tea-leaf reader told Harriet that she saw her “living in a house with many beds and big-mouth blonde” (1), Harriet turned and left because she was “looking for literary prophecies” (1). She answered the ad with the realization that “even prophecies had expiring deadlines” (3), and let herself be swept up into the soap op...
