In the first section of the narrative, Knapp establishes her novel’s distinctive structure, positioning it as a work of parallel lives fiction. Beginning in 1987, the plot branches into three narrative threads—each spanning 35 years and revisiting the main characters at seven-year intervals. Knapp alternates between the three parallel lives, devoting a chapter to each version of Cora’s son. This literary device presents a variation on multiverse fiction, which explores the unfolding of different possibilities in parallel worlds.

The symbolic significance of names lies at the heart of Knapp’s novel, illustrating The Large Impact of Small Choices. Building on the concept of nominative determinism, the author suggests that names can influence an individual’s character and destiny. Cora’s aversion to the name Gordon, which she associates with her abusive husband and her father-in-law, highlights her fears that her son will become violent and controlling like his father. The novel’s diverging narrative threads demonstrate that the name choice affects all the members of the Atkin family. In Bear and Julian’s storylines, the chosen name represents a sense of empowerment in the female characters. Calling the baby Bear is “a defining moment in Maia’s life, a moment when she [is] given a voice and [isn’t] asked to fit into the shadow of her parents’ marriage” (11). Similarly, Cora suddenly feels “fearless” after naming her son Julian, finding the courage to leave her husband when he inevitably punishes her. In the third narrative, deferring to her husband’s wishes harms Cora’s mental health. Her belief that she has doomed Gordon Jr. to become like his father instantly affects her bond with her son.

From the beginning of the novel, Knapp creates a sense of dread through the device of pathetic fallacy—a literary device in which human emotions are attributed to objects, animals, or forces. The raging winds of the Great Storm, sending items crashing “against the back wall of the house” (1), echo Cora’s inner turmoil as she debates the consequences of naming her son. On the walk to the registry office, the sight of a “Belisha beacon” (traffic signal) lying “decapitated beside the road” (4) foreshadows the violence that awaits Cora at home. This ominous tone introduces the novel’s thematic examination of The Effects of Domestic Abuse.

The close third-person narration provides an intimate insight into Cora’s thoughts and feelings, and her attempts at Breaking Free from Generational Cycles. As the story begins, Cora fears that naming her son Gordon will perpetuate the abusive legacy of her husband and his father, both of whom carry that name. The narrative emphasizes Cora’s palpable fear of Gordon Sr. and her desire to protect Maia even as it highlights the ways Maia has already been shaped by the dynamics of her parents’ marriage. She feels a responsibility to protect her mother and, like Cora, she’s learned appeasing tactics, illustrated in the stars and moons she creates to persuade her father that the name Julian is a tribute to his paternity. The novel’s structure highlights the futility of Cora and Maia’s placatory behavior as Gordon Sr. abuses his wife in all three plotlines, albeit in slightly different ways. Even when Cora follows her husband’s wishes and names her son Gordon, it only temporarily delays his escalating violence. Throughout the novel, Knapp highlights the incongruity of violence in the home (a place traditionally associated with safety) by interspersing domestic images with figurative descriptions of warfare. For example, the Atkins’ kitchen is described as feeling “charged, as though a bomb has gone off, as though bits of debris are still falling around them” (44). This consistent thread of abuse across all three versions of Cora’s son’s life, regardless of the name she chooses, suggests that no course of action will keep Cora safe, as Gordon’s violence is driven by his desire for power and control.