People Watching

Prue is the female protagonist of People Watching. In appearance, she is described as short with unruly, curly hair and a bright smile. Like Milo, part of her is stuck in the past because Prue struggles to cope with the shyness that her parents exacerbated by coddling her, illustrating The Importance of Establishing Boundaries in Relationships. As a child, Prue rarely sought out new experiences or engaged in situations outside of her comfort zone, and now, as an adult, she still thinks of herself as “not an adventurous, daring type of person” (55). Her attraction to Milo and engagement in a relationship with him are significant departures from her usual ways, highlighting how strong and instinctual their attraction is.

Prue is a highly emotional and sensitive person, making her a foil for Milo’s seemingly easygoing nature at the beginning of the novel. She feels stress keenly and takes on responsibility to an almost unhealthy degree, as seen by how she puts aside caring for herself to care for her mother. Prue feels like she owes everything to her parents because they helped her get through her complicated feelings as a child, and as a result, she is fiercely dedicated to keeping her family together for as long as she possibly can. Her best quality and greatest flaw is her tendency to put others before herself. Through her relationship with Milo, Prue learns that she is a worthwhile, important person who deserves to be happy, and her journey over the course of the novel advocates for caring for oneself in order to better care for others.

Prue’s lack of social and sexual experiences is a large part of both her character arc and the romantic plot of the novel. Through the use of the “bedroom lessons” romance trope (in which a more experienced character teaches a less experienced character about sex), Prue’s experience demonstrates the novel’s message that there is no right or wrong time to come into knowledge, understanding, or experiences. Though Milo has more sexual experience, Prue learns quickly because of the deep emotion underpinning her sex with Milo, dispelling the myth that becoming sexually active later in life negatively impacts the capacity for pleasure.

Prue’s relationship with Milo helps to jumpstart her confidence as well. Becoming sexually active with a caring partner helps Prue realize that she is beautiful and powerful, and these feelings are emboldened by the realization that Milo sees her this way, too. Prue transfers this newfound confidence to situations outside of the bedroom, ultimately allowing her to confront her father about keeping his cancer a secret and to find solutions regarding her mother. By the end of the book, Prue no longer feels overwhelmed by everything in her life, representing how confidence lets her take control of situations instead of feeling like a victim of them.

Prue’s mother, Julia, plays a double role as Prue’s main antagonist and main motivation for her character growth. From the beginning of the book, Prue feels equally sad and angry about her mother’s condition. She knows that the Alzheimer’s is not Julia’s fault, but she also misses the mother she used to have. One of Julia’s roles in the novel is to highlight how illnesses like Alzheimer’s impact caregivers and their relationships with their loved ones. While Julia takes each moment as it comes without realizing what’s going on around her, Prue is left to deal with physically taking care of the woman and emotionally grappling with the grief of losing her. Julia’s experience also examines the reality of living with Alzheimer’s and its daily ups and downs. While she sometimes has anxiety for reasons she cannot identify, such as wanting to go home when she is home, she also experiences joyful memories from her past as if they are happening in real time, like her continual return to her wedding day and the happiness she felt. In the early chapters, the uncertainty of the disease causes strife for Prue and her father as they struggle to meet Julia’s needs. By the end of the book, however, Prue’s household expands to include Milo and accepts help from the community. This makes the care of Prue’s mother a town-wide affair, highlighting the importance of community support during times of hardship while demonstrating how Julia has actually brought the community together.

Julia also plays an important role in Milo’s character arc. Years ago, she taught art at Milo’s high school. As a kid from an abusive home, Milo viewed school as an escape, particularly art class, since he had an interest and talent for drawing. Julia supported his interest and offered him a safe space to explore his art, making her the most positive adult role model in his life. When Milo returns to Baysville after years away and discovers that Julia has Alzheimer’s, he immediately offers to help, wanting to pay her back for supporting him when no one else did. While this connection turns out to be a positive thing for Prue’s family, the novel also explores the complexities of reintroducing Miles into Julia’s life. Since she is unable to recall how old she is or where she is in her life, seeing Milo as an adult sometimes causes her anxiety because it does not match her current reality. Other times, though, seeing Milo helps her stay grounded in the moment, highlighting the uncertain nature of Alzheimer’s. By the end of the book, Milo’s presence in Prue’s family life allows Julia to get back to painting, as art remains a deep connection between them. This brings Milo’s relationship with Julia full circle as he offers her the type of creative support she once gave him.

Prue’s father, Tom, and his relationship with Prue are central to the novel’s exploration of the importance of establishing boundaries in relationships. From the time Prue was born, her father felt overprotective because she seemed physically fragile. As she got older and also began to seem emotionally fragile, his overprotective nature grew. As a result, he coddled her and kept her safe from uncomfortable experiences, which contributed to Prue remaining shy and uncertain.

During the events of the story, Tom continues to underestimate Prue’s ability to deal with situations, believing that he knows what she needs without even asking. He wants to set her free to pursue her life because he is afraid of holding her back, and this leads him to make poor choices about handling information, particularly regarding his cancer diagnosis. Rather than communicating with Prue so that she can make a decision with all the information about her family, he hides the truth because he believes that doing so puts her best interests first.

With Milo’s help, Tom finally realizes that keeping this secret hurts Prue rather than helping her, leading him to complete his own character arc through changing his relationship with his daughter. For Tom, Milo is the change in Prue’s life that he needs to realize that his daughter is no longer a child. Seeing Prue blossom into a more confident person allows him to redefine the boundaries of their relationship and think of her as an adult, not a child who needs him to do things for her.

Nik is Milo’s older brother, and he is a foil for Milo in terms of the way they deal with their childhood abuse, developing the theme of The Effect of Past Trauma on Emotional Growth. While Milo has dealt with his childhood by running away and trying to never look back, Nik has stayed close to home and done his best to work through what his parents did to him and his siblings. While this process is far from over, Nik’s ability to understand that he does not have to be like his parents has allowed him to find commitment with Sef and start a family so that he can be the father that his father was not. Bonam-Young uses Nik’s example to demonstrate how children who were raised under the same abuse can deal with that trauma in very different ways.

Nik is also an antagonist for Milo, who feels threatened by Nik’s emotional progress because he has not made similar progress himself and is still reluctant to directly confront his past. Milo pushes Nik away, especially in situations involving their childhood, because Nik’s example forces him to see how he still hasn’t dealt with his trauma. Nik’s persistence shows that he’s realized that running and hiding from reality is not the answer, and as Milo’s older brother, he offers a model for how Milo and Nadia can move forward, forcing them to realize that physical distance from their childhood home is not a substitute for facing what happened.

Nadia is Milo’s younger sister and the strongest tether that Milo has to his past. When Milo left home, he left Nadia behind as the only kid in the house, and this decision has haunted him for years. Although he knows, intellectually, that he had to take care of himself first if he wanted to survive, he still feels like he betrayed Nadia. Through Milo’s relationship with Nadia, the novel emphasizes his capacity for caring and emotional connection, despite his efforts to appear otherwise.

Nadia also acts in the novel to represent how trauma affects each of the Kablukovs differently. She coped with her parents’ abuse by hardening against emotional and physical contact from anyone. She fears getting too close to people, as seen through her relationship with Aleks: She clearly has strong feelings for him, but she is unable to open up. At the end of the book, Nadia also decides to stay in Baysville, highlighting how she, too, doesn’t want to run anymore. Her perspective change shows how Milo’s confrontation of his past has affected her, offering her the possibility of change. Between her siblings and Aleks, she’s found a place worth staying in and a life worth opening up for.

Sef is Nik’s wife, and their relationship shows how support has helped Nik deal with his past. Sef is kind and generous, but she also challenges Nik to do better because she knows he can. Her most prominent role in the story is as a wife and mother, but the love she extends to everyone, including Prue, shows her open and caring personality. Sef wants to take care of the people she loves, but she also develops the theme of The Importance of Establishing Boundaries in Relationships by example: She stands her ground and does not let anyone, including her husband and children, get away with inappropriate behavior.