58 pages • 1-hour read
The Defender
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Themes
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of mental illness, graphic violence, sexual content, and cursing.
The Perils of Fame and Parasocial Relationships
The Defender explores the immense pressure public figures face to maintain a public persona, which often conceals deep personal vulnerabilities. The novel argues that the curated identities characters embody to navigate fame come at a significant emotional cost, making it more difficult to form authentic connections and experience true intimacy. Meeting new people requires them to navigate the disconnect between their private selves and the constructed expectations and assumptions of others, rooted in knowledge of their public charisma and professional performance rather than true intimacy.
Vincent’s public image as a professional athlete leads fans to form one-sided, parasocial relationships with him, believing they know him intimately as a person. These parasocial relationships leave Vincent vulnerable to danger, exemplified by the stalker who breaks into his house at the beginning of the novel. The crocheted doll in Vincent’s likeness, left by the stalker, acts as a symbol of the dangers of fame. As Vincent notes, the volatile nature of the home invasion, combined with “the innocuous nature of the doll somehow made it more insidious” (21). As the celebrated captain of Blackcastle, Vincent projects an aura of easy confidence, charming teammates and fans with his wit and leadership. The home invasion shatters his composure, leaving him with such acute anxiety that he can no longer stay in his own home. His public bravado serves as a defense mechanism, but it also isolates him, preventing him from processing his fear and vulnerability. His attempts to maintain the image of the captain everyone reveres force him to conceal his fear and anxiety.
Huang’s novel indicates that the complex nature of parasocial relationships makes it difficult to assess their danger and seek legal recourse. After the break-in, Vincent’s public persona and professional responsibilities make him more reticent to involve the police. When Scarlett encourages him to report the break-in, Vincent says, “I don’t want the press catching wind of this and making it a big thing. We have Champions League matches coming up. I can’t afford to be distracted” (22). He also speaks implicitly to the ambiguous nature of the parasocial threat, questioning whether “the police would even care […] breaking and entering [is] a crime, but nothing got stolen, and I hadn’t received any threats. What were they supposed to do?” (22). The very success that makes him a celebrated athlete also turns him into a target, demonstrating that the rewards of his ambition are inextricably linked to perils that threaten his safety and peace of mind. This conflict between Vincent’s public-facing career and his personal safety continues to escalate as the narrative progresses, raising the stakes of the plot.
For her part, Brooklyn experiences a similar tension between public perception and her private reality. Her internship at Blackcastle FC exposes her to assumptions of nepotism since her father is the renowned head coach of the team. She maintains a “perky, upbeat” facade to mask her own insecurities, projecting a bright, professional demeanor at work, even as she worries her accomplishments will be dismissed and disregarded. This cheerful exterior hides her feelings of familial neglect, particularly her pain from her mother’s careless dismissal and her father’s emotional distance. Once she gets romantically involved with Vincent, Brooklyn’s authentic connection with him makes her a target of Seth, the stalker, who makes assumptions about her based on the delusion of his parasocial obsession with Vincent. He begins following Brooklyn, observing her interactions, and photographing her and Vincent without their knowledge. This tension comes to a head in the novel’s climax when Seth attempts to strangle Brooklyn in a misguided attempt to protect Vincent’s career.
Huang positions Brooklyn and Vincent’s relationship as the antithesis of the parasocial dynamic between Vincent and the public. Their connection is built on private vulnerability and trust that enhances their sexual and emotional intimacy. Their most intimate sexual encounters occur in both private and public spaces across the novel, mirroring their ability to maintain their private connection despite the public pressures they face. In the quiet of the empty Blackcastle stadium, they share their most guarded secrets, from Vincent’s feelings about his adoption to Brooklyn’s career anxieties, and have intimate sex in the middle of the football pitch. These moments of shared vulnerability in significant public locations highlight the challenges of maintaining intimacy against the backdrop of public pressures and parasocial threats.
The Redefinition of Family Beyond Blood Ties
The Defender challenges traditional notions of family by demonstrating that true belonging is forged through mutual trust, emotional support, and shared vulnerability. The novel contrasts Vincent’s and Brooklyn’s strained relationships with their biological parents with the strong, chosen families they cultivate with friends and each other, arguing that emotional bonds are more valuable and life-giving than blood ties.
The protagonists’ core anxieties stem from failures within their biological families. Brooklyn reflects that “seeing [Scarlett and Asher] together” highlights the emotional distance she feels from her parents, underscor[ing] how unmoored [she’s] been feeling” (14). She emphasizes that it isn’t “about the lack of romance in [her] life, [but] about being someone’s priority. Having an anchor” (14). Her father, Blackcastle’s head coach, consistently prioritizes work, leaving their interactions stilted and superficial. Meanwhile, her mother’s narcissism and disregard for Brooklyn’s feelings make her feel invisible. For example, when Sienna finds out that she’s pregnant with a girl, she texts Brooklyn to say she’s excited to be “finally getting a daughter. Implying she didn’t have one already” (40). In contrast, Vincent’s adoptive parents are devoted to him, so his insecurity is rooted in his birth father’s disinterest and his birth mother’s lifelong silence. The annual reminder of “THE DAY” (3) triggers a deep-seated fear of being unwanted, a wound from a biological connection he has never known. These strained and broken blood ties leave both characters feeling isolated and searching for a sense of belonging that their families of origin cannot provide.
Across the novel, Vincent and Brooklyn find unwavering support within their chosen families. The Blackcastle teammates provide Vincent with a strong sense of camaraderie and community, celebrating victories and offering support through difficult times. Vincent’s sister, Scarlett, serves as a steadfast confidante and emotional support to both Vincent and Brooklyn individually. Ultimately, the deepest familial bond that Vincent and Brooklyn form is the one they build together. They confide in each other their deepest vulnerabilities, from Vincent’s adoption trauma to Brooklyn’s career struggles and feelings of familial neglect. This shared trust creates a bond stronger than any they have with their parents. Their increasing comfort in their cohabitation reinforces their growing sense of intimacy, comfort, and safety with each other. When Vincent holds Brooklyn’s hand after their kiss in Budapest, Brooklyn says: “Fresh warmth curled in my stomach, and I couldn’t suppress a smile. We may be in a foreign country, but I’d never felt more at home” (236). By finding the safety and security of family in each other, they’re both able to make peace with their fraught parental relationships. By the novel’s end, Vincent deletes his birth mother’s number. Brooklyn stands up to her mother and begins to mend her relationship with her father on more honest terms.
The Challenges of Navigating Professional Ambition and Personal Contentment
Throughout The Defender, Huang depicts professional success as a double-edged sword that offers immense professional rewards but demands significant personal costs. For Brooklyn and Vincent, falling in love requires them to consistently confront their priorities, balancing their individual ambition and passion with their desire to build a life together. Huang’s novel argues that ambition, especially in the public sphere, requires a difficult negotiation between the pursuit of external validation, professional achievement, and financial abundance, and the preservation of one’s mental, physical, and emotional well-being.
Before meeting Brooklyn, Vincent finds his sense of worth in his professional success. Huang explores the ways his relentless drive is fueled by a need for validation that stems from his feelings of childhood abandonment prior to his adoption. He reflects that his birth mother’s “silence all these years was cold, clear confirmation that she wanted nothing to do with [him] no matter how rich or successful [he] got […] from the moment I was born, someone had already judged me ‘not good enough’” (109). In this context, Huang positions his professional ambition as deeply intertwined with his personal desire to matter. He admits to himself that the “reason [he] loved working with brands was because of the validation. Every deal was proof that they believed in [him] and that [he] deserved to be here” and that he’s “good enough for someone” (72). Only once Vincent feels loved for himself, independent of his wealth, fame, and professional success, does he begin to relax his hold on his professional drive and consider the kind of life he truly wants to live. He encourages Brooklyn to take the job with Haley, and immediately explores options to transfer to a football club in Chicago despite his agent’s insistence that it would destroy his chances of achieving his professional potential.
Brooklyn’s professional journey sees her consistently prioritizing her personal values and fighting for a balance between professional success and personal contentment. She turns down a secure job at Blackcastle to build her reputation independent of her father’s notoriety and prove her own merit. Her decision highlights the sacrifices required to achieve authentic success, separate from the influence of others. She accepts the job in Chicago with the caveat that once she helps Haley qualify for and place at the national competition, she can work remotely from London, using her professional ambition to fuel her personal contentment.
The novel’s happy ending is predicated on this balance between personal and professional success. Both Vincent and Brooklyn find happiness by prioritizing their relationship as the center of the equation and allowing the other parts of their lives to support that outcome. In the wake of Seth’s attack, Vincent admits he would’ve been willing to give up his career in the Champions League to be with Brooklyn, and Brooklyn reveals she’s earned a move back to London. Vincent notes that “[f]or the first time in [his] life, love didn’t feel like a risk. It felt like the safest bet [he’d] ever made” (431).
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