Other's beach.

[Norma J.]

It occurred to me that everyone who was able to carry something (besides sand in their shoes) away from other's beach later experienced what the item suggested. I've wondered what would come about because Kennit gave Etta the ruby earing from that pretty blue kitten. Did anything happen to Kennit or Etta that could have had something to do with blue kittens? I didn't read anything that jogged me about that.

[londonlassie]

Welcome to the forum, Norma J! [/i]

It occurred to me that everyone who was able to carry something (besides sand in their shoes) away from other's beach later experienced what the item suggested. I've wondered what would come about because Kennit gave Etta the ruby earing from that pretty blue kitten. Did anything happen to Kennit or Etta that could have had something to do with blue kittens? I didn't read anything that jogged me about that.

I've thought about this quite a lot, but I've never really been able to come up with much. I think it's significant when the charm says something along the lines of, "The only piece of treasure ever carried off from the Others' Island, and you gave it to a whore. Maybe you're cleverer than you look." But I've never actually managed to work out what the significance of it might be.

Perhaps the giving of the earring was what really bought Etta's heart and loyalty for Kennit - she thought he'd given it to her as a token of affection rather than just something to shut her up, and it may have made her think, Well that's it, then, he does love me. and prompted her to reject Wintrow's advances later on in the novel. Maybe if she hadn't had the earring to remind her that - she thought - Kennit loved her, she would have gotten tired of how badly he treated her and gone off with Wintrow.

But as for a greater significance elsewhere in the book, I've never been able to come up with anything.