The Influence of the Past on the Present

Throughout the novel, the author uses an interplay between Jessa's memories and narrative present to illustrate the significant influence the past is capable of having on the individual's immediate sense of reality and self. So distraught by Brynn's sudden departure from her life, and her father's suicide, Jessa hides in her work in an attempt to retreat from and bury her pain. However, the structure of the novel as a whole enacts the true nature of Jessa's emotional state. Though she never explicitly acknowledges or verbalizes her pain and grief, her perpetual lapses into memory and reverie prove how caught she is in her past. Indeed, she is incapable of living the life in front of her without meditating on the life she once had.

Because she feels abandoned by the two people she loved most in the world...