The Elements: A Novel

Evan Keogh is the protagonist and narrator of the novella Earth, and like Vanessa, he struggles to carve out his independence from the influence of others. As a gay man from an isolated island, Evan also struggles to find himself. His crisis of identity is only worsened by his overbearing and abusive father, who seeks to control Evan’s life trajectory. Ironically, by leaving his father to become the man Evan wanted to be, Evan instead becomes exactly what his father hoped. Even beyond his father, Evan is constantly under the control of other men, his need to be loved driving him to follow the lead of others.

Evan’s passiveness in deference to other men leads him to Complicity and Enabling in Abuse. His inability to say no to Robbie, caused by his desire for him, results in Evan being an accessory to a crime. Even after they are acquitted of the assault, Evan continues to protect Robbie, not wanting to go against what Rafe desires. He is a dynamic character, however, and changes in the last chapter of the novella, when Lauren confronts him. He decides to stop protecting others at the detriment to himself and tell the truth. The ease with which Evan turns the phone in demonstrates how finally making his own decisions releases him from the pain of being someone he is not.

Dr. Freya Petrus is the protagonist and narrator of the novella Fire. Freya is the perpetrator, but her role as a predator is complicated by her motivations. She seeks out young boys to assault as a means of correcting the injustices she suffered as a child, when she was raped by two 14-year-old boys who were her friends. Now she seeks to do the same as a means of revenge: “I notice that the football has come to an end and the teams are packing up their belongings. Immediately, I feel that intoxicating rush, that overwhelming thirst for revenge, that tells me I have no choice but to see this through” (263). Freya believes that by ruining the lives of these young men, she is protecting girls who may have otherwise suffered at their hands.

She is a static character, unable to break free from the cycle of abuse and trauma that began when she was a child. Rather than doing work to heal herself from their abuse, she channels it elsewhere, amplifying that same pain and passing her trauma onto others. This exemplifies the theme of Trauma as a Transmissive Force. As evidence of her inability to change, she goes to a school and sets her sights on a new victim even though she knows Aaron is reporting her to the police.

Aaron Umber is the protagonist and narrator of the novella Air, and one of the many victims of Dr. Freya Petrus. Aaron confronts Freya during his time as a medical student working with her, explaining how her actions impacted him when he was a child and in the present. He is honest about his inability to understand what happened to him and how it altered the trajectory of his life: “‘I was just a child. Only fourteen. It didn’t take long for me to feel that I’d done something wrong. Something I wasn’t ready for” (356). The trauma he experienced robbed him of his innocence and childhood, making it difficult for him to grow. His admittance of this makes him a foil for Freya, as she too felt trapped and defined by what Arthur and Pascoe did to her.

Unlike Freya, however, Aaron does not seek to process his trauma by hurting others as a means for revenge. He is a foil to Freya by deciding to heal, even if it does take him decades to reach this conclusion. When Aaron apologizes to Rebecca for years of resisting therapy, he admits that he never allowed himself to heal, always believing that he had some role in his assault. Only by accepting that he was Freya’s victim is he able to begin to move on.

Rebecca Carvin is the daughter of Vanessa and Brendan Carvin and the wife of Aaron Umber. She is a round, dynamic secondary character who appears in multiple novellas. She has a unique position in the novel, being a witness to how the abuses of others impact her loved ones. Her father abused her sister, Emma, leading to her death by suicide, while her husband suffered from an assault of his own. Unlike other characters, who struggle to take responsibility for their actions in relation to assault, Rebecca is clear on what she believes: “Right and wrong comes into it. A man—even a woman, for that matter—might have such impulses. But because most of us are moral human beings who don’t set out to hurt others, we do nothing to feed them” (335). Rebecca accepts that people have dark thoughts and impulses, and that trauma inflicted on them motivates them to inflict it upon others. However, she believes that every person has a choice between giving into these thoughts or not. For Rebecca, the only person responsible for a crime is the one who commits it.

In Water, it seems as though Vanessa and Rebecca begin to heal from the horrible crimes of Brendan. However, in Air, it is clear that the trauma of her sister’s death and the legacy of her father still haunt her. She is too scared to share this trauma with her son, Emmet, and even stays away from him out of fear that she will pass on her anger. Her personal history makes her acutely aware of trauma as a transmissive force, and she spends her life trying to stop spreading trauma to others.  However, when Emmet reaches out to Rebecca, she realizes that she was wrong and begins to heal from her past.

Brendan Carvin is the primary antagonist in the lives of both Vanessa and Rebecca. He is a static character introduced in Water, but the aftermath of his abuse ripples throughout the collection. He is an abuser who refuses to accept what he did or take any responsibility for the pain he caused to his victims and family, highlighting the theme of resistance to taking responsibility. When he calls Vanessa while in prison, he is still claiming that he is innocent: “‘The truth will out,’ […] ‘They’ve put me in here to cover their own backs. It’s a conspiracy’” (99). Brendan seeks to blame anyone but himself for his sentencing, insisting that he is some kind of scapegoat. He is a foil for Vanessa who gradually comes to accept her role as complicit in his abuse.

When Brendan reappears in Air after his prison sentence, he only becomes more entrenched in his insistence that he is innocent. He continues to blame others, though now he directs his resentment toward his own family, blaming the women in his life for his misfortunes: “Women lie. You know that as well as I do. It’s in their nature. They are inherently deceitful. Especially when they’re trying to trap a man” (431). Brendan hates Vanessa and Rebecca for abandoning him, insisting that they used him. He cannot accept that their actions are a direct result of his own, believing that it was their duty to stand by him. He is a foil to Dr. Freya Petrus, another abuser who feels neither remorse nor responsibility for her crimes. Unlike Freya, Brendan isn’t a survivor of abuse. Their juxtaposition is a study of two characters who have different histories and motivations but end up following the same destructive course of action.

Ifechi is the priest on the small island where Vanessa stays and Evan was born. He is a round, static secondary character who offers support to both of them in their times of need, acting as a mentor figure as they maneuver through their pain and trauma. As a nonjudgmental religious figure, he symbolizes the power of grace and forgiveness—not to give to the abusers, but to the survivors. He knows Vanessa’s background but does not judge her like other people on the island. He encourages Evan to stop internalizing Cormac’s rejection: “when you left, you were damaged. No boy of that age should feel so badly about himself” (209). Ifechi is a voice of reason. He acknowledges Evan’s pain but insists it comes from outside sources and not internal imperfections. When Ifechi speaks with Evan and with Vanessa, he does so to help them gain a better understanding of themselves.