Hopeless

Bailey Jansen is a main character and first-person narrator of the novel. The chapters titled with her first name are written from her perspective and trace episodes from her storyline. She is 22 years old and lives in Chestnut Springs, where she works at the local bar, The Railspur. She rents a trailer, located on the family’s property, from her brothers Seth and Aaron Jansen. Bailey has lived in Chestnut Springs all her life, but she does not derive a sense of home or belonging from the place. Rather, Chestnut Springs feels like a trap. Everyone in town disparages her because of her brothers’ and father’s criminal histories. No matter where she goes or how she tries to prove herself, she feels incapable of escaping the town’s negative perception of her, demonstrating the difficulty of Combating Reputational Stigma in a Small-Town Community.

Bailey is a self-motivated character who feels limited by her circumstances and others’ disbelief in her. She desperately wants to create a life for herself independent from her family and Chestnut Springs. However, she meets challenges and obstacles everywhere she turns. She is fired from her hospital job because her brothers stole from the place, and everyone else in town refuses to hire her or rent her an apartment. She cannot make a pathway out of Chestnut Springs because of how few opportunities she has. It is not until she and Beau start seeing each other that Bailey is able to conceptualize a new future for herself, a shift that highlights the Transformative Power of Love.

Bailey is a dynamic character who changes over the course of the novel. Her personal evolution is in large part inspired by her relationship with Beau. When Bailey is around Beau, she feels confident in herself. He quickly recognizes that she is “not a kiss-ass, she’s not a pushover, and she doesn’t tiptoe around me. She also might not be as sweet and quiet as I thought” (36). Bailey’s ferocity and sassiness are authentic parts of her character that have historically been disparaged by others. She typically tries to hide her true nature because she knows people dislike her. With Beau, however, she is willing to show her humor, wit, and inhibition. The more time they spend together, the more assertive and self-confident she becomes.

Bailey is also an empathetic and gracious character. Her own encounters with hardship help her to understand Beau. She does not know what it means to fight overseas, but she does know what it means to feel isolated, haunted, afraid, and alone. She invests in Beau by encouraging him to be vulnerable and listening to his hardships. She also adds levity to his life, waking him up from his sadness with excitement, jokes, and playful pastimes. Her fun-loving, youthful energy reminds Beau what it means to enjoy life again.

Bailey remakes her life by the end of the novel. She does end up pursuing a relationship with Beau, but she also makes choices for herself. She moves to the city to start school, ultimately inviting Beau into her life and expressing her desire for Beau to be a part of her future.

Jasper Gervais is a secondary character and Beau’s best friend. In the context of the Chestnut Spring series, Jasper’s story features in Powerless, which traces his love story with Sloane Winthrop. In Hopeless, Jasper plays a supporting role in Beau’s story. The two have been close for many years, and Jasper is the only person Beau trusts. He directly addresses his respect for his best friend when Jasper’s character first appears on the page in Chapter 3:

I can always trust Jasper to crack me up, razz me a bit. He hasn’t taken to smothering me since I got back. […] Jasper knows trauma. He knows when to push and when to sit back. And he knows how it is to have everyone staring at you, waiting for something to happen, like you’re an experiment in a petri dish (32).

Overlaps between Jasper’s and Beau’s experiences endear them to each other. Beau knows he can bring his struggles to Jasper because Jasper can relate. He also trusts Jasper’s outlook on life and relies on his counsel. Further, Beau appreciates that Jasper loves him at a distance, giving him the space he needs. Jasper appears infrequently throughout the novel, but he offers Beau helpful advice whenever he does. He never lets Beau down and never disguises the hard truth from him. He fulfills an archetypal guide role in Beau’s story.

Seth and Aaron Jansen are minor characters and fulfill an antagonistic role. They are Bailey’s brothers. No one in town appreciates the Jansen brothers because they are always getting into trouble, and whenever they make an appearance, “there’s usually some sort of spectacle not far behind” (43). They are belligerent, demanding, and volatile. While Beau’s internal unrest often manifests as intense protectiveness, the Jansen brothers’ aggression is inspired by entitlement, greed, and a thirst for violence.

Seth and Aaron create tumult in Bailey’s world throughout the novel. Even when they are not actively upsetting Bailey, their negative reputations limit her opportunities for work and friendship in town. The brothers also demand that Bailey pay them rent even though she is living on family property. They try to break into her trailer and steal her diamond engagement ring, and they trespass on Beau’s land when she relocates her trailer there. Meanwhile, they regularly show up at The Railspur, verbally harass Bailey, and cause scenes with other customers. Bailey has learned to either submit to their violence or to remain silent in their presence because she fears the repercussions of their outbursts. Once Beau becomes an integral part of her life, however, he starts to stand up to Seth and Aaron on her behalf.