Culpability

Noah is the protagonist and narrator of the text. He is a lawyer at a mid-sized law firm and describes his work as “paper shuffling.” Though he outwardly claims otherwise, Noah is insecure about his career and his upbringing. Noah’s father worked an average job, and his brother died in the Army after enlisting to escape their socioeconomic condition. Noah is the first in his family to go to college, and even though DePaul isn’t the most prestigious school, he takes pride in the grueling hours he worked to achieve this. Noah met Lorelei through a bet and got his job through accidental connections with rich students, so he feels like he “[won] the lottery” and is afraid that his good fortune will slip away (262). Noah’s insecurity is the reason behind his problems with Lorelei’s secret connection to Monet, as he thinks it will break up the family and push him back to his destiny of mediocrity.

Noah overcompensates for his fears by overcontrolling his kids’ lives, especially Charlie. At the same time, he’s extremely lenient and doesn’t like to punish his children. He is remorseful whenever he hurts their feelings, like when he instantly apologizes for snapping at Alice in his heat-induced irritation.