Character Clues
Character Analysis
Family Life
For better or worse, we are all shaped by our families. Deborah is no exception.
Many of the triggers for Deborah's mental issues are responses to stuff going on with her family. Her father, for example, is always warning her that there are "sex maniacs and fiends, one to a tree, waiting for" her (14.32). And this was back in the 1940s, before the Internet and cable news made us paranoid about all of this kind of horrible stuff.
And it gets worse for Deborah. When a guy exposes himself to her, Deborah can't understand why he'd want to do that, since her female parts have already been broken by the tumor removal operation. Instead of explaining to Deborah that there's nothing wrong with her, and that the operation had to be done for her health, Jacob shakes the girl and smacks her.
Yep. Family issues, folks.
Thoughts and Opinions
While there is a lot of action in this book—screaming, smacking, rolling around on the floor—most of the narrative relates to people's inner lives. That means we get a lot of thoughts and opinions.
This is a third-person omniscient novel, so we get everyone's thoughts, even those of minor characters. Mostly, however, we're in Deborah's head. We get to see how she formulates and perpetuates this sad idea that she is poisonous and can infect other people.
Deborah's interior world of Yr is entirely built of thoughts and opinions. Some of them are her own, but, like anyone else, she filters what she thinks about herself through what other people say about her.
What makes Deborah sick is that she believes all the negative things people say about her. She really believes these things. When she was young, the imaginary people in her fantasy world of Yr helped her escape all the negativity, but as she's grown older, the Yri people have kept repeating all of this negative stuff to her every day. Deborah eventually finds she has no escape.
Actions
We're not always in people's heads in the book, of course. We also learn about the characters through what they do.
One of our favorite examples is Dr. Halle. He's a ward doctor who's on shift when Carla and Deborah are reprimanded for leaving the hospital without permission. They have a great time and don't come back to the hospital until after midnight, and they get in serious trouble with the attendants.
The girls are separated and put in isolation until the next morning. But when they sit before Dr. Halle, they can see "he was fighting a smile" (26.52). He tells them they broke the rules, but then he tells them he's proud of them for having fun. "He rearranged his look toward discipline. 'I see no reason to change the status of your privileges. That's all'" (26.53). And he dismisses them. Just like that, without yelling or anything.
You can't help but like the guy. He's struggling not to be happy for the girls, but he also has to act like an authority figure. When he doesn't come down hard on the girls, it's clear: his actions are showing his compassion.