Obsession

Though Winnie and Juno's personalities, life circumstances, and origin stories are starkly different, the author uses them as character foils for one another: in particular, both women have a history of obsessive behavior. Both women's inherently protective and earnest personalities rapidly led to over-investment and compulsive behavior. In the narrative present, Winnie chooses to bury these negative traits, pretending as if they do not exist in order to disassociate from them. Though Juno is better able to confront the truth of who she has been and the mistakes she has made she finds herself repeating her old habits years later. While working for Illuminations Mental Health as a social worker, Winnie develops a habit of getting "much too involved with her patients" (144). Not long after being assigned to Josalyn's case, she would "come home each night thinking—no, obsessing over Josalyn's fate" (159). Then, when Josalyn got...