Character Analysis
Genet is an Eritrean girl, the daughter of the maid Rosina. She grows up with Shiva and Marion: they are the children of educated immigrants, while she's the child of a colonized people. Shiva and Marion's relationship with Genet, and the strange path her life takes, helps readers see how different racial, imperial, and gender ideals affect everyday life for millions of individuals.
Sister
When the children are young, they don't see any difference between themselves. Shiva and Marion are better off (their "parents" are doctors) than Genet, who is the daughter of an unmarried maid (her father is married to another woman, so can't recognize her as his legal daughter), but the kids get along as though they were equals.
Marion remembers a scene from his infancy: "We don't know this, but Rosina is carrying the seed of revolution. She is pregnant with a baby girl: Genet. The three of us—Shiva, Genet, and me—are together from the start, she in utero while Shiva and I negotiate the world outside" (3.17.12). This description adds Genet into the brotherhood, as though she were just a triplet arriving a little later than her first two brothers.
The kids continue to interact as close, loving siblings until puberty hits. As you probably know, that brings about some changes for everyone and makes it hard to really know what's going on with your feelings until the hormones settle down.
Lover
When the kids are a little older, they play a game they mistakenly call "blind man's buff," which, um, ends with Genet being in the buff. Yeah, those aren't the rules we know. Anyway, Genet leads Marion to the pantry blindfolded, where they have their first kiss and feel each other up.
This is the first time that Marion realizes that they are different: "My hands swept over her belly, and then down farther, between her legs, running over a soft fissure, the absence, the empty space, more intriguing than what might have been present" (3.2.114). And from that moment on, Genet is no longer Marion's sister but his ultimate romantic ideal.
But there's a problem: Marion wants to wait to have sex until he and Genet are married, but she's ready and rearing to go: "The hounds, judging by how I felt—couldn't help sniffing at our doorstep, and what's more, Genet, by her own admission, was in heat" (3.33.57). Marion, the narrator, compares Genet to a dog because she is happy to give in to her sexual urges. He expects her to do as he wishes, but her desires are too strong.
Enemy
Genet is blamed for the biggest split between Shiva and Marion, bigger than the cut that split their heads in two when they were babies. She sleeps with Shiva, breaking Marion's heart. It's a betrayal that she doesn't seem to really feel anything about; Genet is sort of an empty person, raging and acting on her first impulses. It's almost like the author sees her as someone with no self-control, maybe because of her family situation or social class.
After the betrayal, Genet's mother has her daughter's genitals mutilated in order to keep her from enjoying sex. The mutilation leaves Genet in critical condition and puts her at odds with the traditional way of life her mother pushes on her. This does a number on Genet, and in the end, Rosina feels so much guilt over the whole thing that she up and kills herself. After her mother's death, Genet becomes Public Enemy Number One.
No, for real: Genet actually helps hijack an airplane, and then she gets Marion in trouble because of his connection to her. (He didn't have anything to do with the terrorism, of course; it's just bad police work, really.) Then, years later, when Marion finally has sex with Genet, she ends up giving him hepatitis B, which almost kills him. To be fair, she did try to warn him.
By the end of the novel, Genet is sort of a stand-in for all bad things in the world, and Marion seems to blame her for all of his problems. It's probably not really fair, but what's a character in a gigantic novel to do but obey her author?