Pittard offers us many perspectives--including the collective voice, "everyone"--but she centers the narrative around Robert, Piedmont, Anastasia, and Ivan & Lulu. Why do you think she chooses these characters to drive the story?
Created: 08/07/19
Replies: 13
Join Date: 10/15/10
Posts: 3442
Pittard offers us many perspectives--including the collective voice, "everyone"--but she centers the narrative around Robert, Piedmont, Anastasia, and Ivan & Lulu. Why do you think she chooses these characters to drive the story?
Join Date: 06/15/11
Posts: 222
I think they represent a broad spectrum of backgrounds, ages and societal placement in order to show how
this crash affected everyone in the city even though the actual number of residents lost was not large relative to the main population. The fact that they were mostly all from the privileged and leadership group from the city left the city somewhat adrift in "management" for a moment, but in some ways, it might have presented an opportunity for the city to let some new ideas and personalities come forward to lead.
Join Date: 03/14/19
Posts: 208
Pittard's choice of characters give readers several avenues to understanding the full story. Not everyone reacts the same way to a tragedy. Too, the losses were different. Some adult children lost parents; some young children lost one parent. And there were other iterations of loss. Pittard gives herself an opportunity to explore various losses including one imagined one with Anastasia's story. That reminded me of a woman who pretended to be part of the 9/11 tragedy and received all sorts of help until she was exposed. Of course, Genie knew from the beginning that Anastasia was lying, but she was pulling her own con.
Join Date: 08/07/18
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Join Date: 08/10/17
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In this way she could show a varied point of view and varying responses to the same tragedy depending on the character of the individual. Although Raif was not a major character, he seemed to be a pivot point for the whole story and as far as liking a character, I liked him best.
Join Date: 09/18/13
Posts: 20
It's like the movie "Rashomon." Here is this one event, but each witness sees it differently. In this way, Pittard can approach the deadly plane crash from these different perspectives and explore different issues that interest her.
Join Date: 04/26/17
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Join Date: 08/30/14
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Good question. I asked this question as I read the book. I understand the motivation for Piedmont’s story in 1962 Atlanta and how Lily fits in as the injured party in a love triangle but I can’t figure out why the other characters were in this storyline.
Join Date: 05/19/11
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Join Date: 05/16/16
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I felt that the author chose 5 different voices to show a broad experience to this shared event, not everyone experienced it the same way.
I agree with peggyt that Raif was an interesting character and I wanted more from him!
Join Date: 05/19/11
Posts: 13
i think she chose the five characters for their diversity and hoped that would give the reader some insight into the mood of Atlanta. I don’t really think she succeeded. Except for Piedmont’s story, the story arcs left me cold.
Join Date: 08/06/17
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Join Date: 01/01/16
Posts: 434
These five acted differently for their own personal reasons. Robert felt very saddened and guilty because he had talked his mistress into going on the trip. He felt her death was partly his fault. Piedmont met Lily and fell in love. Without all of the circumstances after the crash he would have never met her. Anastasia now had the opportunity to make up a story about family on the plane, and was able to be taken in my Genie. Actually clueless as to why the author wrote the short chapters about Lulu and Ivan.
Join Date: 02/06/17
Posts: 438
This is a tough one for me to answer. I think there were secondary characters that might have made for a stronger story had they been the focus. I think the connection to the historical event might have been stronger as a result, and I don't think the plane crash was really necessary. The author could have easily presented all these characters using something entirely made up. Lulu strikes me as the kind of person who would unravel if something went wrong at one of her ladies' luncheons. :)
In the big picture, Lulu and Ivan really were the two characters most focused on the plane crash in their every day life. EVERY DAY. EVERY CONVERSATION. The stories of the rest were related, but the crash wasn't the focus in their chapters. Things happened in the characters' lives because of the plane crash- -like Piedmont was sort of "in the right place at the right time."
Death/loss doesn't necessarily make people pull together. Not everyone questions their reason for still being alive and how best they can use that gift. I think there were a lot of characters who reacted very selfishly and used the tragedy to manipulate others. When there is a big tragedy happening in a city, a country, or the world, each individual person is also living their own personal tragedy. Bad things happen, and we all react (or don't react) differently.
But.... Piedmont wasn't really affected by the loss of 120 rich white people, and Anastasia stood to gain quite a bit (initially) without feeling an ounce of sadness about the crash. So...
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