Reply To: The Searcher: Who is the Searcher?
I’m in agreement with everyone else that both Cal and Trey are searchers. Trey is searching for her brother and Cal is also searching for her brother. On a deeper level, as Libby, Jane, and Nancy mentioned, Trey is searching for closure so she can move on with her life and she can only do that when she knows what happened to Brendan. She is also searching for something or someone she can look up to, to guide her. Without Brendan looking out for her, she doesn’t have someone truly looking out for her, her mother is too busy with her younger siblings. So Cal is like a substitute parent. And I think him showing her how to fix the desk and carpentry helps her build confidence in herself.
For Cal he’s also searching for a new life. With his divorce and his daughter grown up he’s feeling untethered from what was once his family. He also grew weary and lost at his job as a detective, unable to distinguish if he was doing good work. So he’s searching for an internal stability and renewed sense of purpose and maybe also a new family (although he doesn’t know it). He thinks that he would rather be alone and work through his thoughts and feelings quietly but Trey pulls him into the search, which pulls him into the deeper relationships going on in Ardnakelty.
I also like Jane’s point that the reader is also a searcher. I hadn’t reflected on that but I was not only drawn into the search but also into reflecting on the choices Cal and others make.
