In Saunders’s novel, the motif of inevitable occurrences represents The Tension Between Compassion and Justice. The concept is first invoked when Jill reflects upon the interior life of her murderer, Paul Bowman: “Who else could he have been but exactly who he was? He seemed, if I may say it this way, inevitable. An inevitable occurrence, upon which, therefore, it would be impossible, even ludicrous, to pass judgment” (76-77). In the metaphysics of the novel, people are born with certain predispositions that make them who they are but also limit their free will. With this context, the novel proposes a radical form of sympathy for those who commit morally heinous actions. It suggests that people aren’t fully responsible for their choices because they are fundamentally unable to choose differently.

The word “occurrence” becomes key in this motif, as it suggests that people “happen,” rather than making active choices throughout their lives with full awareness of what they are doing. Jill first applies this philosophical framework to her murderer while examining his inner thoughts after her death, sympathizing with his misconception that the death of Jill’s husband, Lloyd, would mark a change in Bowman’s personal fortunes. She applies this same framework to Boone, justifying that he couldn’t have chosen to live his life differently because the circumstances of his birth predisposed him to favor a life of prosperity. Even when Jill succeeds in liberating Boone’s spirit and achieving his moral conversion, she applies the framework to the Mels, seeing that they, too, were inevitable occurrences.

The inevitable occurrence framework directly facilitates the elevation of Jill’s spirit, which suggests that radical sympathy requires extreme detachment from the feelings and desires of the human self.