Reply To: TRWR: What role do secrets play in the novel?
Hardly any characters in TRWR did not have secrets, painful and sometimes isolating secrets. For Brody and Angie, the secrets they kept were of mostly of past behavior of which they were ashamed; Brody his conduct during the war and Angie of prostituting herself. While that behavior was necessary for their survival, both hid their past until first, Angie was forced to reveal her past to Brody or Garnet would and Brody then found himself able to share his secrets with Angie, including his contemporary destruction of evidence in the killing of Jimmy Quinn. For Brody and Angie, I think learning one another’s secrets allowed them to risk a relationship.
There are others with secrets. Brody and Garnet keep their affair secret; whether to protect themselves and their reputations or their family, I am uncertain.
But, some secrets are meant to protect others. Marta keeps secret the father of J.P. as do Noah and Kyoko. Charlie pledges secrecy to Marta when Marta confesses to killing Jimmy. Marta never tells Colleen of her abuse at the hands of her father. And Brody only reveals that he knew who killed Jimmy Quinn and why after his death and to Charlie who has kept that secret for years.
In the Epilogue, we learn that Charlie has been a “confessor” to Angie and Brody and to Scott who gradually comes to terms with his hand in the death of Creasy. Kind of makes me wonder how many other secrets each of these people had and ultimately shared. In many ways, TRWR is a story of forgiveness and the struggle to extend that to oneself.
