Looking For Salvation at the Dairy Queen

Catherine Grace Cline is the novel’s protagonist and first person narrator Her father is Marshall Cline (Daddy), the town preacher. Her mother is the allegedly deceased Lena Mae Cline, and her younger sister is Martha Ann Cline. Catherine Grace is a dynamic and round character whose journey toward self-discovery structures the narrative. Her defining motivation throughout the novel is to escape her small hometown of Ringgold, Georgia, a place that Catherine Grace says “never felt right to me, like a sweater that fits too tight under your arms” (3). This ambition fuels the novel’s central conflict, pitting Catherine Grace’s personal dreams against the weight of her family’s legacy. She is a regular at the local Dairy Queen, where she and her sister spend their childhood “licking Dilly Bars and planning our escape” (8). Catherine Grace frames her quest for freedom and autonomy in epic terms, using biblical allusions to elevate her departure into an “exodus” and her Atlanta destination into a “Promised Land.” Catherine Grace’s faith in God was shaken by the premature death of her mother Lena Mae, but her attachment to the faith remains complicated.