The Good Daughter

Sam is the other protagonist of the novel. In the present timeline, she is 43, tall, striking, blue-eyed like her mother, and with hair that is completely white. The white hair is one of the many visible effects of the traumatic attack on her family in 1989. In the opening Interlude, Sam is shown kicking her way out of the shallow grave, an action which is also a metaphor for her resilience. Told by Gamma to always protect Charlie, Sam asked Charlie to run away, which made her attackers shoot Sam. Sam’s selfless choice shows that she is a courageous character but she also lives with anger and resentment at the effects of her injuries, and the fact that she thinks Charlie did not suffer violence. As a consequence of her injuries, adult Sam grapples with chronic pain, poor vision, anger issues, stiff limbs, and language processing difficulties. She often uses a cane to assist with walking. An expert runner as a child, Sam now uses exercise and physical therapy to cope with her constant pain. Unlike Charlie, who chose to practice criminal defense law like their father, Rusty, Sam has chosen to become a patent lawyer. The choice of career shows how Sam resembles Rusty and Charlie, but also departs from them. In her choice of career, as well as her personality, Sam is a foil to Charlie.

Sam is often compared to her scientist-genius mother Gamma. When Charlie finally meets Sam after decades, she mistakes her for Gamma for a moment. Like Gamma, Sam tends to look at matters logically, retain facts about everything, and has trouble fitting in. Although the tendency to rattle out facts may make Sam appear odd, her objectivity and intellect are great strengths. It is Sam who discovers Judith’s arm in the security footage and conducts a successful arraignment for Kelly, proving her intelligence and competence.

Much of the narrative’s emotional arc relies on the dynamism of Sam’s character and her reconciliation with her family. Though she blames Rusty for his work leading to Gamma’s death, she forgives him when he confesses his lasting love for her and Gamma. At the end of the novel, Sam too changes, ending her self-imposed isolation. She is shown to be in regular touch with Ben and Charlie, and chooses to view Gamma as an adventurer chasing joy, rather than a victim. The choice shows Sam too has let go of the past, made her peace with Rusty and Sam, and transformed. A dynamic and round character, Sam evolves through the narrative.

The father of Sam and Charlie Rusty is a complex, morally ambiguous character In the present timeline, Rusty is a 74-year-old criminal defense lawyer characterized by his tendency to adhere to his own principles. Rusty continues to defend alleged criminals, even though his liberal political beliefs earn him regular death threats. Seen mostly through his daughter Charlie’s eyes, Rusty is apparently a larger-than-life character, and his jokey demeanor and hedonism mark him as a happy-go-lucky character. However, Rusty carries the burden of terrible trauma, as he lives with the loss of his wife and the attack on his daughters in 1989, including his daughter Sam’s estrangement from him.

Rusty’s character arc involves the realization and regret for his request to Charlie, a dynamic character journey. He apologizes to Charlie’s husband Ben for his injustice toward Charlie, although he does not apologize openly to Charlie, reflecting his patriarchal attitude. Rusty shows he is capable of change when, after learning about Charlie’s sexual assault, Rusty decides to stop defending those charged with rape.

Though Gamma is killed in the novel’s opening section, her presence looms large over the narrative, marking her as a key character. Wife to Rusty and mother to Sam and Charlie, Gamma is described as a genius. Before resigning from her job to raise Sam, and then Charlie, Gamma worked as an astrophysicist with NASA and Fermilab. Seen mostly through Sam’s eyes, Gamma is a tough taskmaster, pushing her daughters to excel. At the same time, she is an iconoclast, bothering little with other people’s expectations and opinions. Gamma resigns from a mainstream career, baffling expectations of a meteoric professional arc. However, she is far from a conventional homemaker, defying domestic expectations as well.

Despite her tough exterior, Gamma is a loving mother. Knowing that she is very ill, Gamma asks Sam to protect Charlie, a request which mirrors Rusty’s request to Charlie as a burden of responsibility. When the Quinns are attacked, Gamma is ready to sacrifice herself to save her daughters. After Gamma’s death, Sam and Charlie try to seek Gamma in themselves and her posthumous character in memory reveals their own thoughts and feelings. Although Gamma’s death is a crisis point in the novel, she also symbolizes hope, with Rusty, Charlie, and Sam holding onto her memories to get them through their trauma. The final image of the novel is Gamma looking happy and hopeful, reflecting the newfound positivity that her daughters feel at the novel’s conclusion.

Judith Heller Pinkman is the perpetrator of the present-time narrative’s crime mystery.

Judith appears in both the plot’s timelines. In 1989 she is a young neighbor who shelters Charlie after she escapes Zachariah Culpepper. Judith comforts Charlie and comes to represent protection and nurture for Charlie. She also agrees to keep the rape a secret, as requested by Rusty. In the present-day timeline, Judith is middle-aged, a middle-school English teacher married to principal Doug Pinkman. The moral ambiguity of Judith’s character is reflected in the contrasting ways in which the two protagonists perceive her. In Charlie’s eyes, the image of Judith as nearly angelic is further enhanced by the older woman’s cradling of Lucy Alexander after the school shooting, as well as her impassioned plea for mercy for the alleged shooter Kelly Wilson. However, viewed through Sam’s eyes, Judith’s presence during the school shooting is suspicious, as well as her decision to run into the hall and cradle Lucy.

Judith coerced Kelly to murder Doug as a punishment for Kelly carrying Doug’s baby. Judith’s criminal behavior can be understood as part of Slaughter’s critique of the effects of limited agency for women, especially within a particularly traditional structure, such as Christianity. Judith does not believe in divorce; hence, her only way out of a loveless, toxic marriage seems to be murder which, paradoxically, is a complete departure from Christian morals. The name choice of “Judith” is significant as the most famous Judith in world literature is the biblical woman who murders King Holofernes because he wishes to destroy her home. Judith’s character reflects the extremes to which patriarchy can drive a woman but the text does not justify her actions. Her actions toward Kelly are presented as more damning than her actions toward Doug; the narrative suggests little censure for the murder of Doug as a sexual predator but is critical of Judith’s lack of female solidarity and protectiveness toward his vulnerable victim, Kelly. Instead, Judith also exploits Kelly. At the end of the novel, Judith confesses and takes her own life, demonstrating remorse for her treatment of Kelly.

Kelly's role in the narrative is as the true victim of the present-day crime. Her presence in the text offers an exploration of the negative cycle that is created by social inequality and the exploitation of the vulnerable. Described as petite and skinny, Kelly's diminutive physical appearance is a metaphor for her marginalization and vulnerability. Kelly is believed to have killed Principal Doug Pinkman and young Lucy Alexander, as she is found holding the weapon. She is scapegoated by the police and is the victim of both Doug Pinkerton’s sexual predation and Judith Heller Pinkerton’s criminal machinations. She is vulnerable because of her family’s low socio-economic status, educational difficulties, and the savage bullying she is subjected to by her peers.

The fact that Kelly could not go through with the killing and required Judith to pull the trigger shows Kelly as vulnerable and exploited rather than corrupted. Nevertheless, she is convicted of murder within a justice system that is unable to recognize her as a victim. Her character is emblematic of the struggles of youths like her, who Sam notes, often fall at the bottom of the social pile.

The antagonist of the novel, Zach is portrayed as an evil character, with no redeeming qualities. He is arguably the only non-ambiguous character in the novel. He is presented from the beginning as a serial criminal, even as a youth, and the portrayal of his attacks on the Quinn women shows him to have sadistic, possibly psychopathic criminal tendencies. After he learns his innocent brother Daniel was killed by the police, Zach uses unjust acts to secure hush money from the Huckabees. A flat, one-dimensional character, Zach is sentenced to death, and is on death row in the present-day timeline. Arguably, his continued lifespan has enabled him to continue his traumatic impact and fraudulent activities into the narrative’s present.