The Measure

The most prominent example of this motif is the correspondence between Ben and Amie. The anonymity of the letters allows Ben and Amie to be honest and authentic, and the letters thus serve as an opportunity to probe the larger philosophical issues at stake with the appearance of the strings. As Ben is a short-stringer, and Amie hasn’t opened her box, they offer an interesting intersection of perspectives that Nikki Erlick uses to her full advantage.

However, letters also appear in a few other important contexts. In his first letter, Ben writes of a letter in a World War II museum, and a soldier’s message to a woman named Gertrude: “No matter what happens, I still feel the same” (57). Amie and Ben debate the meaning of this cryptic message in their correspondence together until, later in the novel, Amie tracks down the origins of the letter. The letter to Gertrude highlights the uncertainty the soldier faced, and his determination that his feelings would remain the same. This connects to Amie and Ben’s struggle, in which they know that Ben only has about 14 years to live.

The other important letter that appears in the novel is Javier’s letter to his parents.