Symbols None of This Is True Lisa Jewell

The Passionflower: A Symbol of Desire and Trespass in None of This Is True

Introduction

In Lisa Jewell's psychological thriller None of This Is True, a single flower becomes a concentrated emblem of longing, intrusion, and fabricated identity. The passionflower that Josie Fair plucks from Alix Summer's front wall appears in only one scene, yet it encapsulates the core tensions of the novel: the gulf between Josie's cramped existence and the luminous domesticity she covets, the boundary she crosses—both literally and metaphorically—and the lie she tells herself about belonging. This article examines the passionflower as a concrete symbol, tracing its literal appearance, its shifting meanings, and its connections to character and theme.

The Flower's Appearance in the Novel

The passionflower appears in chapter 8, "Sunday, 23 June," during Josie's first documented surveillance of Alix's home. After watching Alix and her sisters enter the house, Josie crosses the street and lets her fingertips trail across the climbing plant. She notices "the remarkable purple-and-lime-green face of a passionflower staring up at her" (chapter 9). She pulls it, plucks it, and holds it all the way home. This is the only occurrence of the flower in the action of the novel; it is not mentioned again in later chapters, though its symbolic weight lingers through Josie's subsequent intrusions.

What the Passionflower Literally Is

A passionflower (Passiflora) is a climbing vine known for its exotic, complex bloom: a ring of purple or blue filaments surrounds a central structure, often described as a "face" or crown. In the novel, Jewell emphasizes the flower's "purple-and-lime-green" coloration and its "face" appearance, which Josie interprets as staring up at her. The flower is attached to a climbing plant that graces Alix's front wall, part of the curated exterior of a home Josie perceives as flawless. Literally, the passionflower is a piece of decorative horticulture; symbolically, it becomes a stolen fragment of the life Josie desires.

The Theft and Its Significance

Josie's act of taking the flower is a trespass, both physical (she crosses onto Alix's property) and psychological (she appropriates a piece of Alix's existence). Josie has already spent the afternoon surrounded by "the flotsam and jetsam of other people's summer days" (chapter 9), feeling excluded from the ordinary pleasures of others. When she sees the flower, her breath catches—a visceral reaction to the beauty she lacks. By plucking it and holding it "the whole of the way home," she transforms the flower into a talisman, a stolen object that promises connection. This mirrors her later, larger intrusions: her uninvited visits to the school, her appearance at the front door on the doorbell camera, and ultimately her manipulation of access to Alix's home and podcast.

Changing Meanings: From Envy to Trespass to Fantasy

The passionflower carries layered meanings, each shading into the next as Josie's obsession deepens.

  • Envy: The flower is first a symbol of Josie's envy for the life she imagines inside Alix's house. She pictures wine being pulled from a chrome fridge, olives tipped into bowls—a fantasy of effortless prosperity. The flower, as a beautiful, exotic object, embodies the aesthetic of that world.

  • Trespass: The act of stealing the flower is an explicit boundary violation. Josie crosses the street after ensuring the family is inside; she touches Alix's property without permission. This transgression foreshadows larger violations: entering Alix's home for podcast recordings, hiding in the garden shed, and ultimately becoming a threat to the family.

  • Fantasy of Belonging: Holding the flower, Josie imagines herself as part of Alix's world. The flower is a physical token that she possesses, a piece of the perfect home she cannot enter. Later, she keeps other souvenirs—a receipt from Alix's shopping (chapter 16)—and kisses it, treating it as a magical artifact. The passionflower is the first of these fetish objects, representing Josie's delusion that mere proximity or possession can transform her identity.

Connections to Key Themes

The passionflower ties directly into several of the novel's central themes.

  • Obsession and Control: The flower is a product of Josie's surveillance. Her feet "subconsciously" lead her to Alix's road (chapter 9). The theft is an act of control: she takes what she cannot earn, asserting a false ownership.

  • Unreliable Narration and Truth: Josie describes the flower as having a "face" that stares at her, personifying it as a witness or an invitation. This subjective reading—attributing meaning to a coincidence—reflects her broader tendency to construct narratives that serve her desires. The novel's title, None of This Is True, echoes in the falseness of Josie's interpretation.

  • Domestic Violence and Grooming: Josie's own home is suffocating: she will not enter Erin's room, the flat smells, and her marriage to Walter began when she was a child. The passionflower represents the opposite: a home she believes is safe, clean, and loving. It is a fantasy born from her own damaged family life.

  • Class and Social Aspiration: The contrast between Josie's Kilburn flat—where "the buses... let in the faces of all the people" (chapter 3)—and Alix's Queen's Park house with its "milky-blue" pots and white shutters (chapter 9) is stark. The flower, growing on the wall of that house, symbolizes the class boundary Josie longs to cross.

  • Podcast Ethics and Media Manipulation: The flower is also a metaphor for the story Josie feeds Alix. It is a beautiful, curated fragment that conceals the rot behind it—the abuse, the death of Brooke Ripley, the cover-up. Just as the flower is plucked from a seemingly perfect garden, Josie's narrative is plucked from a life of secrets.

Character Connections

The passionflower illuminates the contrasting characters of Josie and Alix.

  • Josie Fair: The flower embodies her passive, lurching approach to life. She does not earn or purchase; she takes on impulse. It represents her fetishization of Alix's existence and her inability to distinguish between admiration and theft. Her emotional arc—from quiet desperation to violent action—begins with this small trespass.

  • Alix Summer: Alix is unaware of the stolen flower. Her garden is a backdrop for her curated life; the climbing plant is a detail she may not notice is missing. Yet the flower's removal prefigures the larger thefts to come: Josie's appropriation of Alix's podcast platform, her husband Nathan's disappearance, and the invasion of her home. Alix's obliviousness to the missing flower mirrors her blindness to Josie's true nature.

  • The House Itself: The house is described as a "blank face" with shutters (chapter 9), contrasting with the flower's expressive "face." Josie reads the flower as open and inviting, while the house remains closed. This paradox—organic welcome versus architectural defense—captures Josie's misreading of Alix's world.

Four Study Questions

  1. Why does Josie personify the passionflower, calling it a "face" that "stares up at her"?
    The personification allows Josie to imagine that the flower—and by extension, Alix's entire world—is reaching out to her. It reinforces her belief that the connection between them is fated and reciprocal, not just one-sided surveillance. This self-soothing fantasy helps her justify her trespass.

  2. How does the stolen passionflower parallel the stolen objects DC Albright returns to Alix in chapter 38?
    DC Albright returns items taken from Alix's house during the later invasion (chapter 38). The passionflower is the first of many stolen objects, though it is never recovered. Both acts of theft are symbolic violations: the flower is a piece of Alix's exterior life, while the later items are personal and interior. Together they show the escalation of Josie's entitlement.

  3. In what way does the flower's ephemeral nature reflect the wider theme of truth in the novel?
    The passionflower is picked and will die; it cannot be preserved. Similarly, Josie's constructed "truth" is fragile, based on stolen fragments and reinterpretations. The flower's brief existence mirrors the fleeting credibility Josie's story holds before it collapses under scrutiny from the Netflix documentary (chapter 40).

  4. Why does Josie not keep the passionflower in the narrative beyond that evening?
    The flower is not mentioned again after chapter 9. Its disappearance from the text suggests that for Josie, the act of taking was more important than the object itself. Once possessed, the flower loses its magic; the fantasy of belonging can only exist in the chase. This pattern repeats with her subsequent intrusions—each one leaves her unsatisfied and hungry for more.

Conclusion

The passionflower in None of This Is True is a deceptively small detail that radiates significance. It is the first physical object Josie takes from Alix's world, a token of desire that reveals her willingness to cross boundaries, her wishful interpretation of chance, and her ultimate inability to possess what she covets. The flower wilts unseen, but its symbolism—of trespass, envy, and the fantasy of a perfect home—blooms throughout the novel, reminding readers that the smallest acts of theft can preface the largest betrayals.