The Overnight Guest

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses sexual assault, domestic violence, murder, child endangerment, miscarriage, and gun use.

In The Overnight Guest, the characters are exposed to traumas including murder, sexual assault, and police brutality. These traumas directly influencing the characters’ behavior and relationships, showing the extensive influence of trauma on a person’s life. However, because no two experiences with trauma are the same, its effects manifest in significantly different ways across the characters.

Wylie’s life is guided by her negative self-image, as she identifies herself as undeserving of good things. This sense of shame stems directly her suspicion that she could have saved her family or protected Becky; Wylie puts a heavy burden on her past self, certain she should have acted more like an adult when she was still a child. This belief highlights the disconnect between Wylie’s perception and reality, minimizing her identity as a survivor and instead placing her in the role of a blameful victim. The already budding belief is formalized during a childhood altercation with Margo Allen, Becky’s mother, during which Margo repeatedly and aggressively asks, “[D]on’t you want to help [Becky]?” (227). Because she is unable to help Margo, Becky, and her family, Wylie internalizes her powerlessness, leading her to a long life of intentional isolation. It is only when she is isolated against her will and reclaims her autonomy that she ends her self-inflicted loneliness, beginning the journey of overcoming the trauma that has haunted her for decades.

While Wylie is emotionally trapped by her trauma, Becky is physically trapped by hers. Becky’s distress is perpetuated by her circumstances, as Randy’s ongoing influence has shaped her belief that she has no one to turn to besides her daughter. As a result, Becky is distrustful of all strangers, rejecting Wylie’s initial offers for help and expressing terror toward the police. Her daughter mirrors much of this expression of trauma; the child refuses to tell Wylie her name and hides her gender. It is only when the girl is reunited with her mother that she finally starts to express herself, showing that her mother provides her with security that the child otherwise believes is inaccessible. Even when Becky and her young daughter return to Becky’s childhood home and start their lives as free women, they continue to manifest the trauma of their experience, both possessing “a wariness in their eyes, a haunted look that made Wylie want to cry” (329). They remain cautious of the broader world, their lives now burdened with the knowledge of what it is like to be without freedom.

While Wylie and Becky both end the novel with better understandings of their traumas and a start on their journeys toward overcoming those traumas, Gudenkauf takes care to show the consequences of unaddressed trauma through Brock and Jackson. Brock, having been threatened by Levi during the investigation, becomes so terrified of the police that he dies in his attempt to avoid further confrontation. He cannot turn to the police for protection, and he cannot find comfort in those around him; he is thus left adrift in broader society and, without anyone to lean on, gives in to his fear. Jackson, similarly, turns to alcohol to cope with his traumatic experiences in the war, which in turn perpetuates trauma as he repeatedly has run-ins that negatively affect his life. His end assertion that “[n]o one ever believes me” (278) is representative of the broader culture that disavows people of his circumstance.

Gudenkauf explores trauma and trauma responses through her characters’ interactions with the world around them, highlighting the different ways that trauma can harm a person. In showing isolation, coping mechanisms, and the need for autonomy, The Overnight Guest provides readers with a deeper understanding of the compounding effects of trauma and the need for healthy coping for healing.