The Glass Spheres Symbol in Jenny Lawson’s Broken: Souls, Cracks, and Healing

In Broken, Jenny Lawson introduces a powerful metaphor: the soul as a glass sphere. This symbol appears most directly in Chapter 38, “Souls,” but its echoes ripple through the entire memoir, shaping how we understand brokenness, healing, and the beauty of imperfection. The glass spheres idea transforms a universal experience—feeling damaged or incomplete—into something tangible, relatable, and even sacred.

What the Glass Spheres Represent

In Chapter 38, Lawson describes souls as “glowing half orbs. Flat at our back and round at our chests, like glass paperweights with golden candy-button dots at the center.” These spheres crack over time—from sadness, loss, doubt, pain, or a “lack of structural integrity” caused by depression or chemical imbalances. When shards fall out, they leave holes. People then search for pieces—a song, a line from a book, a person—that might fit into those gaps and temporarily stop the ache.

Sometimes people use ill‑fitting substitutes: alcohol, drugs, unhealthy relationships, or a job that fills time but not the soul. These “square bits” block the truly healing shards from entering. The chapter contrasts two types of people: those who “blithely leave shards” of love, art, kindness, and inspiration, and those who “walk with sledgehammers,” smashing spheres thoughtlessly and leaving behind only numbness. Lawson writes that “pain is bad, but numb is a thing too terrible for words.” The metaphor insists that even brokenness can be sacred when it connects us to others.

Where the Symbol Recurs and How Its Meaning Shifts

While the glass‑sphere metaphor is most explicit in Chapter 38, its logic reappears in several earlier chapters, each time adding a new layer of meaning.

Chapter 25, “Sometimes There Is Beauty in Breaking”: A stone dove is accidentally knocked from a table and smashes into dozens of pieces. Lawson first grieves, then decides to keep the broken bird as art. Her husband Victor later suggests kintsugi—the Japanese practice of repairing breakage with gold‑laced lacquer, making the damage part of the object’s story. This physical dove mirrors the metaphorical glass spheres: breakage is not the end but an opportunity for beauty that could not exist without the crack.
Chapter 6, “Rainbow Fire”: Stuck in a hotel room because of anxiety, Lawson sees a rainbow created by a fountain’s mist, visible only from her confined space. She realizes that her brokenness gave her a perspective others miss. Here, the “chasm” of anxiety becomes a window rather than a wound.
Chapter 30, “Damaged Good(s)”: Lawson reflects that “something is only real if it’s damaged.” Scars and marks tell our story. This prefigures the glass‑sphere idea that cracks define identity rather than diminish it.
Chapter 33, “I Am a Magpie”: Lawson collects buttons left behind by strangers. She runs her hands through them, imagining the lives of the women who owned them. These buttons work like shards: discarded by one person, they fit perfectly into another’s collection, preserving memory and connection.
The Epigraph: Leonard Cohen’s lines—“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in”—set the stage. The glass spheres metaphor literalizes this idea: the cracks allow light, love, and healing to enter.

The meaning shifts from a personal, internal description of emotional damage (Chapter 38) to an external, communal process of repair and art (Chapter 25). It also expands from a focus on individual pain to include the joy of discovering hidden beauty (Chapter 6) and the value of reusing what others have left behind (Chapter 33).

Connections to Themes and Characters

The glass spheres symbol ties directly to Broken’s major themes:

Brokenness and Healing (theme page): The spheres are always broken, but healing is ongoing. The memoir reframes healing as learning to live with cracks, not erasing them.
Mental Illness and Stigma (theme page): Lawson’s anxiety is a “shard forever missing.” The metaphor destigmatizes mental illness by embedding it in a universal human condition.
Vulnerability and Community (theme page): We share shards with others and receive theirs. True connection happens when we let others see our cracks.
Memory and Identity (theme page): Holes left by lost loved ones become “monuments” that shape who we are.
Humor as Coping (theme page): Even in the serious sphere metaphor, Lawson’s wry voice appears (e.g., square pegs in round holes), showing how laughter can be a shard of its own.

Characters also embody the symbol:

Jenny Lawson (character page): Her sphere has a permanent chasm of anxiety. She collects shards from others (songs, books, love) and leaves her own shards of writing.
Victor (character page): He suggests kintsugi, reinforcing that repair can be beautiful. He helps find missing pieces, both literal and figurative.
Hailey (character page): The trust of a child can fill a hole. Lawson mentions the healing power of a small child’s or animal’s trust.
Lisa, Mother, and Grandmother (character pages): Though not directly in the sphere chapter, they represent the web of people who leave shards—through stories, buttons, and love.

Study Questions and Answers

What does the glass sphere metaphor reveal about Lawson’s view of emotional wounds?

Lawson portrays emotional wounds as inevitable cracks in the soul’s structure. These cracks are not defects to hide but essential parts of identity. They can be filled with meaningful shards (art, love, kindness) or with harmful substitutes. The metaphor emphasizes that brokenness is universal and ongoing, but also potentially beautiful when seen in the right light.
How do the shards that other people leave behind function in the metaphor?

Shards left by others—songs, art, kindness, encouragement—are like gifts that can fit into our own cracks. They remind us we are not alone. Some people discard shards carelessly (sledgehammer wielders), while others intentionally leave healing pieces. The exchange of shards creates community and mutual healing. Lawson notes that “sometimes the holes line up” and two people can lean into each other’s emptiness, though she warns that codependence is not a lasting solution.
In what way does the kintsugi story from Chapter 25 relate to the glass spheres?

The broken dove in Chapter 25 parallels the glass spheres. Instead of hiding the break, kintsugi repairs with gold, making the damage part of the object’s history and beauty. Similarly, the glass spheres’ cracks become valuable when we accept them and let light in. Both stories suggest that repair can be more meaningful than perfection. Victor’s comment that the missing pieces “can’t just disappear” echoes the idea that shards are never lost—they will be found again.
How does Lawson’s “permanent chasm” of anxiety challenge the idea of complete healing?

Lawson explicitly states that some cracks never fully fill. Her anxiety is a “shard forever missing” that creates a fragile core. This challenges the notion that healing means becoming “whole.” Instead, healing involves learning to live with the chasm, protecting it, and allowing it to shape one’s identity. The memoir advocates for embracing permanent brokenness as part of self‑acceptance, arguing that what we perceive as weakness can become a source of empathy and connection.

Conclusion

The glass spheres symbol is central to Broken’s message. It reframes brokenness as universal, sacred, and even beautiful. Lawson’s metaphor encourages readers to see their own cracks as sources of light and connection. By sharing her shards—her stories, her humor, her vulnerability—she invites us to share ours, creating a community of broken yet beautiful souls.