Odds Against Tomorrow

Content Warning: This section references existential dread, disaster and its aftermath, and emotional and psychological distress.

Elsa is a classmate of Mitchell’s from college. In the first chapter, another peer describes Elsa as “not especially attractive or even distinct—a small nose, reddish brown hair hanging loosely to her shoulders, soft eyes spaced a little too far apart, a delicate chin” (9). This description indicates that Elsa could be anyone, and she is in a sense a stand-in for all of humanity. Elsa has an illness called Brugada syndrome, which means her heart could stop at any moment. Mitchell feels that her Brugada makes her significant—that she is uniquely in the position of being constantly subject to catastrophe. In reality, any person can die unexpectedly, but while Mitchell knows this one some level, he behaves as though he can avert any possible disaster by worrying and planning.

Elsa’s character therefore symbolizes the lack of control, and she is key to Mitchell’s journey toward understanding the boundaries and limitations of his own fears. It is not coincidental that his communication with Elsa picks up as he leaves his work at Fitzsimmons Sherman and moves to FutureWorld; Mitchell’s struggle to understand how Elsa copes with her impending doom mirrors his struggle to accept the chaos of the universe.

As part of his obsession with The Illusion of Control, Mitchell tells himself that his interest in Elsa is charitable. He learns through continued correspondence that Elsa is homesteading some land at a former boy’s camp, Camp Ticonderoga, and struggles to understand why she would live so far away from hospitals and medical professionals. Believing that she is either irresponsible or deluded, he sees it as his responsibility to protect her, perhaps by convincing her to adopt a “safer” lifestyle. In reality, Elsa’s willingness to embrace life despite her condition is part of what fascinates Mitchell. Consequently, when in the aftermath of  Hurricane Tammy Mitchell is grappling with the reality that his worst fear did not immobilize him—just the opposite—he seeks to connect with Elsa to process this. The burning of Ticonderoga and Mitchell’s assumption that Elsa is dead further symbolize the death of Mitchell’s former fears, but they also force Mitchell to live what Elsa has now come to represent: the reality that one can only truly rely on one’s own mindset and actions. Even when he learns that Elsa is alive, Mitchell therefore refuses to see her. Elsa, like his anxieties, is part of the past.