54 pages • 1-hour read
People Watching
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Themes
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness and child abuse.
The Effect of Past Trauma on Emotional Growth
The characters of People Watching are products of their individual childhood experiences, and through their portrayals, the novel explores how various types of trauma manifest in both behavior and attitude. Milo, Nadia, and Nik were all shaped by their parents’ physical and emotional abuse, while Prue’s experience offers a more nuanced example of how trauma can manifest in childhood. Together, the experiences of these two very different families illustrate both how trauma can manifest and how people’s experiences with trauma can result in very different behaviors, even within the same household.
Milo and his siblings represent how similar traumatic experiences shape people in different ways. As a result of his parents’ emotional and physical abuse, Milo, the middle child, detached himself from everyone but his siblings and only ever engaged in casual relationships. Whenever he was confronted with discussing his past, he refused to do so because “avoiding the topic only makes it all the more real. All the more deadly. But talking about it could feel worse” (195). Similarly, Nadia, the youngest, also avoided talking about her childhood. She was left alone with their parents after Nik and Milo left home, and Nadia grew hardened and closed off, violently pushing people away. In contrast to his siblings, Nik, the eldest child, emerged from their childhood situation with a drive to build the home he never had. By entering a committed relationship with Sef and starting a family, Nik sought to build a family and right the wrongs of his own childhood. The adulthood choices of the siblings highlight how their childhood experiences had a unique effect on each of them. Where both Nadia and Milo struggle to form attachments in adulthood, Nik surrounds himself with attachments, showing how experiencing the same childhood trauma does not mean they all became traumatized in the same way.
While Milo, Nadia, and Nik show how blatant childhood trauma has an effect on adulthood, Prue’s experiences highlight how trauma can be unseen but still a fundamental part of one’s growth. Compared to Milo and his siblings, Prue experienced a seemingly picture-perfect childhood, growing up with her needs met by two loving parents. However, because of Prue’s high sensitivity to emotions and shy nature, her parents coddled her—her father especially—and their overprotection instigated a subtler, more invisible trauma. Prue’s parents wanted to protect her from the world, and so, as an adult, she struggles to make connections with other people because she never learned those skills. Further, while Milo, Nadia, and Nik escaped their childhood home, Prue still lives with her parents as an adult, continuing the traumatic dynamic, illustrated through her father continuing to keep secrets from her. Tom still sees his daughter as a child, incapable of protecting herself, and believes that he’s doing the best thing for her; in reality, however, his control only keeps Prue from developing coping mechanisms, continuing the trauma of her childhood into adulthood. Like Milo and his siblings, Prue illustrates the effects of childhood trauma on growth and into adulthood. The very different upbringing that she experienced highlights how trauma can still exist even in seemingly positive environments, underscoring the novel’s message about how trauma can manifest very differently for different people.
The Importance of Establishing Boundaries in Relationships
Beyond the romantic relationship between Prue and Milo, People Watching delves deeply into family relationships and dynamics. The events of the novel bring several different types of relationships into prominence, and the narrative’s exploration of the dynamics between characters highlights the importance of establishing boundaries in relationships, even with those one loves.
Prue’s relationship with her father offers an example of the negative effects associated with failing to establish healthy boundaries. They have a strong, loving relationship, but that makes it, paradoxically, all the easier for boundaries to blur. Tom loves Prue and, partly because she has never left home, still sees her as an overly sensitive little girl. As a result, he does not adjust the relationship he had with Prue as a child to accommodate the needs of Prue as an adult. This allows him to justify lying about his cancer diagnosis, making decisions that Prue is capable of making on her own because he still sees her as incapable of doing so. Since he still thinks of Prue as a child, he does not ask what she wants, nor does he consider that her wants and needs may have changed over the years. By failing to adjust the boundaries he set up years ago, Tom stifles communication between them, not realizing that Prue’s expectations of their relationship have changed. When the truth of his diagnosis comes out, Prue is justifiably frustrated and angry: He overstepped her implicit boundaries by imposing his own, which are still rooted in their past. Having a meaningful discussion about their relationship allows them to establish clear communication and develop boundaries that match, illustrating the process by which new boundaries are established even in long-standing relationships.
While Prue and Tom represent the importance of establishing boundaries that match, Milo’s character arc regarding Prue shows the importance of reworking unhealthy boundaries. As a result of his childhood trauma, Milo has distanced himself from other people, setting a boundary between himself and others that means that he engages only in casual, physical relationships. When he meets Prue, he instantly feels a connection to her, but he immediately pushes those feelings away because they are “something to be avoided, stopped, and cut off” (121). The intimate connection to Prue that Milo feels reminds him of a family connection, which he fears because it has only ever ended in pain for him. As Milo gets to know Prue more, however, he begins to adjust the boundary he’s put around himself to let her in, both physically and emotionally. However, he unknowingly steps into the complicated dynamic between Prue and her father, keeping Tom’s secret even though he doesn’t want to. Milo’s participation in the lie and the fallout from it force him to realize that people sometimes make poor choices, but this is different from how his parents intentionally hurt their children. Making this distinction allows Milo to develop a more nuanced understanding of boundaries, giving him the courage to expand his relationship boundaries to incorporate Prue, her family, and Baysville as a whole. Through Milo’s and Prue’s backstories, the novel examines the effect of shifting and unclear boundaries, but through their relationship, the narrative demonstrates the importance of reexamining and establishing clear boundaries as essential to a balanced relationship.
The Ripple Effect of Change
Throughout People Watching, the characters experience changes that ripple throughout their lives, changing their perspectives on other aspects of their lives. Milo left Baysville long ago, and his return prompts him to reassess his relationships with his family and the town. Prue, meanwhile, has never left Baysville, but the changing circumstances of her life and her parents’ health force her to question other aspects of her life. Through their journeys over the course of the novel, the narrative explores how small changes in one’s life can cause a perspective shift that results in other changes, resonating throughout one’s life in unexpected ways.
Milo’s emotional arc highlights how changing his outlook changes his view of Baysville and his personal history with the area. When Milo left home years before the novel is set, he did so with the intention of never returning, believing that this would allow him to escape his past trauma. When Nik calls Milo back to the area, Milo goes to help his brother, but he is sure that the visit will be nothing but a painful reminder of things he’d rather forget. Meeting Prue is Milo’s catalyst to change. Initially, he narrows his feelings for her to a physical attraction so that he’ll be able to leave in a few months and not care about her when he’s gone. However, getting to know Prue changes Milo’s attitude toward meaningful relationships. This makes him want to stay with her and, as a result, want to stay in Baysville because the place has people he cares about. The changes that Milo undergoes as a result of his relationship with Prue also change how he feels about his past, his family, and being so close to home. A place that once felt like a step backward grows into feeling like his future, highlighting how changing one aspect of himself (how he views romantic relationships) changes his entire view of his environment.
While Milo’s arc highlights how opening up to one relationship reframes his other relationships, Prue’s ongoing relationship with her family home highlights the ongoing nature of change. When Prue was a child, her home was her refuge from the world. Now, as an adult caregiver for her mother, she feels suffocated in the place she once considered a haven. Prue’s understanding of her home is further complicated by her relationship with her parents. Because her mother is no longer the person she once was, Prue’s attitude toward the house has changed, making the place feel almost like a prison, if one she willingly stays in. With Milo’s help, however, Prue regains some control over her life, which allows her to see her home as her sanctuary again. This link is again shown when Prue learns about her father’s cancer diagnosis, after which her home feels ominous and dark. Confronting her father and talking through options for the future offers Prue a sense of control again, which resonates through her relationships to her home and to Baysville, making it feel less stifling. The Epilogue shows Prue, her parents, and Milo happily existing together in the space, illustrating Prue and Milo’s successful reshaping of her home and Baysville as a haven for them both, rather than the prison they both felt it was at the beginning of the novel. With this happy ending, the novel emphasizes its message that small changes can be powerful catalysts for larger changes.
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