Clare Savage

There are arguably two central characters in the book, Clare and Christopher (The Watchman). While Clare receives far more narrative attention and "page time," for lack of a better phrase, ultimately the two characters can be seen as discussed throughout the Analysis, they can be seen as embodying opposing archetypal spiritual / emotional / experiential principles, with Clare personifying the female (maternal, nurturing, powerful) and Christopher personifying the male (independent, destructive, also powerful). These embodiments seem thematically essential and inevitably entwined, with both characters encountering and/or living out their true selves within a context of racism, responding to the spiritual corruption it engenders with very different actions.

The main point to note about Clare is her journey of transformation. She starts out a naïve girl governed by her father but with a curiosity about herself and about her race that remains stifled for a good part of...