Comfort & Joy explores the power of magic. As soon as Joy emerges in the rainforest in Washington, she begins to experience the magic of the place. It ranges from subtle aspects of her surroundings to her inexplicable, nonphysical journey to Washington in the first place. Her faith in the mystical aspects of her journey is crucial to its power and, in the end, this faith is what reunites her with Bobby and Daniel.

From Joy’s first steps into the rainforest, it has an otherworldly quality. In Rain Valley, “Everything is obscured by the haze; two-hundred-foot trees appear strangely fragile. Even time seems elastic” (91). The laws of normal physics seem not to apply there. Comments like these foreshadow the fact Joy’s perception is not perfectly clear—her vision itself is “obscured by the haze.” These comments also suggest that seemingly impossible forces are at play in the rainforest. The most stable beings, the two-hundred-foot trees, show signs of weakness. The foundation of the most reliable phenomenon, like time, comes into question. Rather than distrusting her own mind, Joy sees the environment itself as mysterious and unreliable but captivating. The rainforest functions as both a physical and metaphysical space, reflecting Joy’s internal transformation.