So Far Gone

Bethany Kinnick Collins is the secondary protagonist of the novel and the daughter of Rhys Kinnick. She appears primarily through flashbacks until Chapter 4, when Walter establishes her as a protagonist by setting up the framework for her own personal journey. The central tension of Bethany’s character arc revolves around her impulsive desire to run away from uncomfortable situations. It is initially suggested that this tendency is what sets the plot in motion, causing her to disappear out of fear for Shane’s radical politics. The flashbacks that reveal Bethany’s backstory, however, drive a more complex explanation for her escape.

Growing up, Bethany admired Rhys so much that she aspired to become a writer like him. Their relationship weakened during her adolescence when she discovered that Rhys may have been engaged in an affair. Rhys’s failure to acknowledge what Bethany saw made her believe that Rhys did not trust her. This gave rise to two complementary ideas that defined their relationship up until their reconciliation in Chapter 5: first, that Rhys was morally reprehensible, and second, that he considered her unworthy of the truth. Bethany’s therapist identifies her tendency to escape as behavior that she has modeled from Rhys. This suggests that despite their estrangement, Bethany still sees Rhys as a role model, even if only on a subconscious level. This also explains why Bethany decides to send her children to Rhys when she runs away with Doug to the Paititi Music Festival.

Bethany’s perception that Rhys is disappointed in her is really a projection of her disappointment in herself. After the death of Celia and Shane’s gradual turn to militant radicalism, Bethany feels panicked that she is the only person left to keep her children safe in an unsafe world. The fact that she has failed to achieve her early dream of becoming a writer makes her feel incapable of fulfilling her role as a mother. This is also why she escapes with Doug when she hears that his band will be playing the songs she wrote when they were still dating. She wants to return to a point in her life when she felt she could still achieve her ambitions, escaping her disappointment. When Rhys arrives at Paititi to bring her back to her children, it awakens her to the reality of her present life and compels her to take responsibility for it. This is helped along by Rhys’s apology, in which he assures her that he isn’t disappointed in her. At the end of Chapter 5, they connect over their shared tendency to escape, realizing that this tendency never actually leads them anywhere satisfying. By the end of the novel, Bethany is able to fulfill her role as a mother by supporting Leah through her adolescent angst and Asher through the grief over his father’s death.

Dean Burris is the primary antagonist of the novel, representing the greatest threat to Rhys and Bethany in their character journeys. Dean is initially introduced as a sidekick to Shane Collins, who is similarly framed as an antagonist. This misdirection enables Shane to have a redemption arc while also deepening Dean’s motivations for antagonizing the heroes.

Dean’s backstory revolves around his criminal activity as a wildlife poacher. When Rhys was working as an environmental journalist, he sensationalized Dean’s criminal case by giving him the nickname “The Dominion Eagle Killer” in the newspaper. This tainted Dean’s reputation so much that when he later ran for Stevens County Commissioner, he lost the primaries on account of his history. Dean thus holds a grudge against Rhys, which turns him increasingly aggressive as he comes to recognize that Rhys is the newspaper reporter who ruined his reputation by accurately reporting on his poaching of endangered animals.

Dean’s grudge ultimately causes him to brutalize Rhys and Bethany during their final confrontation in Chapter 6. This drives the idea that Dean does not really abide by the ethical demands of his religion. Rather, Dean subscribes to the Church of the Blessed Fire and the Army of the Lord because it enables his desire to break away from the laws that govern society. This aligns with the platform he pushed when trying to run for commissioner, suggesting that the county should be freed from the legal jurisdiction of the state and from federal laws as well. Dean effectively wants to do what he wants without consequence, allowing him to stand as a representation for the darkest parts of radical right-wing American politics.

Shane Collins is a secondary antagonist who redeems himself at the end of the novel. The novel initially presents him as the biggest threat to Rhys and Bethany’s relationship, especially since Shane’s first appearance sees him provoking Rhys into a fight over their political differences. Shane embodies the novel’s critique of a “post-truth” information landscape by subscribing to conspiracy theories that affirm his racism. This directly leads to Rhys’s self-exile, making Shane a catalyst for the estrangement between Rhys and Bethany. Shane reinforces this role when he rebukes Bethany in Chapter 5, implying that he is emotionally abusive towards Bethany.

Shane’s backstory drives his redemption arc, however, by making him sympathetic and recontextualizing his actions through the lens of his underlying motivations. As Chapter 7 reveals, Shane is a coward who wants to be brave for the people in his life. He links the idea of bravery to Christianity when he sees a peer from a Christian youth group stand up for another peer who is being bullied. Shane is conscious of his own failure to stand up for the bullying victim, which convinces him of his fundamental cowardice. Shane later experiences drug addiction and goes into a court-ordered recovery program with Narcotics Anonymous, where he meets Bethany. It is in recovery that Shane accepts religion as a tool for empowerment. The deeper he commits to his chosen church, the more he can convince himself that he has the capacity to be brave. Shane needs to augment this, however, with physical evidence, which is why he leans into organizations like the Army of the Lord, which encourages believers to assert their power through pseudo-military force.

Shane obeys the impulse to save Bethany from Dean because it gives him an opportunity to stand up to a bully. Shane puts his life at risk to protect his wife, correcting his error as a young man and suggesting that he has grown as a character.