Message In A Bottle

Garrett is Theresa’s love interest and the novel’s deuteragonist. Though the narrator spends more time describing Theresa’s thoughts, feelings, actions, and motivations, Garrett is a close second. His feelings are often revealed through his conversations with Jeb and, even more pointedly, in his dreams involving his deceased wife, Catherine. Garrett is in his early thirties, and his mother died when he was 12. He has spent his entire life in North Carolina and, specifically, on the beach and in the ocean. Now, he owns a scuba diving shop and teaches other people how to scuba, and he also fixes boats in his spare time. He and Catherine renovated his boat, the Happenstance, together, spending years on the project, but she died less than one year after its completion. The narrator eventually reveals that she was pregnant when she was struck by a car, and their baby was actually conceived on board the Happenstance, making the boat that much more meaningful and significant to Garrett. Despite her death occurring around three years prior to most of the novel’s action, he still grieves Catherine terribly and even feels guilty for inviting Theresa to go sailing with him the day they meet.

Garrett’s dreams of Catherine provide the catalyst for his letter-writing, and it is the love he so movingly conveys in these letters that attracts Theresa to begin with. Her finding one of his letters provides the novel’s inciting incident and initiates her desire to find Garrett and get to know him. Ironically, it is also his need to send one last message in a bottle that leads to his death, though it helps to convey the idea that love is possible even after terrible grief and loss. He was in the process of letting Catherine go so that he could move on with Theresa, and Theresa is compelled to believe in love after loss as a result. Garrett’s character is dynamic, as he goes from being someone who cannot fathom entering into another romantic relationship to one who falls in love with a new partner within a relatively short period. Though he cannot conceive of leaving North Carolina for quite a while, he eventually does determine that he can move to Boston to be with Theresa, representing a massive step in his emotional development.

Deanna is Theresa’s best friend and boss at the Boston Times. She’s in her late fifties with graying hair, and she is completely devoid of vanity. Deanna is the “best person” Theresa has ever known, full of “optimism and humor, and everyone who knew her adored her” (29). Theresa is staying with Deanna and Deanna’s husband, Brian, on Cape Cod when she finds the bottle containing Garrett’s letter. It is Deanna who convinces Theresa to print the letter in her column, and this leads Theresa to discover two more letters; then, she and Deanna use the information they glean from the three letters to figure out Garrett’s last name and identity. It is Deanna who pushes Theresa to go to North Carolina to find him. In short, Deanna helps Theresa to be more spontaneous, encourages her to consider what she wants in a partner, and urges her to date again after her divorce from David.

Deanna and Brian were college sweethearts and have been together for 36 years. They were unable to have children, because her fallopian tubes are riddled with scar tissue. She became the managing editor of the paper 10 years before the start of the novel, and she immediately began to mentor other female reporters. Theresa was the first of these reporters. Deanna has a total “lack of inhibition,” which is what Theresa admires most about her, and “she didn’t really care what other people thought, and Theresa often wished she could be more like her” (37). In some ways, then, Deanna is Theresa’s foil. She has a long-term, loving marriage, the kind for which Theresa longs, and she doesn’t care what other people think, unlike Theresa, who is more inhibited and reserved. This makes it easier for Deanna to make inquiry calls regarding Garrett’s identity, and she tells her friend the truth, such as when she urges Theresa to consider the question of location—Boston or Wilmington—when Theresa’s relationship with Garrett progresses. Deanna doesn’t play a major part of the plot, but she’s instrumental in driving it because she serves as Theresa’s sounding board.