I Have Some Questions for You

Thalia Keith was murdered during her senior year at Granby, and, although Bodie only quotes her indirect speech, the memories of those who survive make Thalia a round character. As Bodie narrates the story of Thalia’s murder and Omar’s conviction, she continues to supply changing information, reporting rumors from Granby that cloud Thalia’s character and actions. According to Bodie, “Thalia was not the queen bee of the class” but “she was new meat for the boys” (49).

As Bodie’s memories continue to resurface while she teaches at Granby, Thalia becomes a much more complicated figure. Although she is friends with Beth and the other popular kids, she remains kind to Bodie, offering sympathy and understanding when Bodie reacts strongly to news of Kurt Cobain’s death by suicide. As the Keiths continue to discuss Thalia, it becomes clear that Thalia remains a different person for her parents, her half brother, and her sister. Thalia falls in love with Mr. Dennis Bloch and dates Robbie, only to die as a result of the former’s predatory behavior and the latter’s jealousy.

Omar Evans first appears to be an antagonist and is wrongfully convicted of murdering Thalia. One of the athletic trainers at Granby, he changes from an active, exuberant young man to an aged, worn man in prison. Although his ex-girlfriend testifies about his temper at the original trial, Omar appears good-natured and kind. The institutional forces at Granby take advantage of his naïveté when he makes mistakes in dealing with the police and authorities that suggest his innocence. Ultimately, circumstances and circumstantial evidence form the basis for his guilt. Bodie describes him as a foil for Robbie, Dorian, and the other privileged students at Granby. While they have advocates and community to save them, he remains an outsider and takes on the role of convenient scapegoat for Thalia’s murder.

Throughout the novel, his role as Robbie’s foil changes. Omar’s health deteriorates in jail: He is injured by another inmate, denied food at his hearing, and imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. In contrast, Robbie and Bloch both progress successfully in their lives. Robbie enjoys a marriage, children, freedom, and a career, all things denied to Omar. While Robbie can count on the unquestioning loyalty of Mike and enjoy the privileges of wealth at Granby and beyond, Omar’s family is fractured by his imprisonment, and his grandmother dies prematurely after his arrest.

Mr. Dennis Bloch serves as the silent antagonist of Makkai’s novel, addressed throughout by Bodie in her internal musings about the case and accused of predatory behavior by Beth, Bodie, and other witnesses that Dane Rubra helps to uncover. Bloch leaves Granby after Thalia’s death and teaches overseas. In the years after Bodie leaves Granby, he continues to move, apparently outrunning any lingering allegations: proof of The Corruption Within Academic Power Structures. Married with children, he appears first in Bodie’s recollection as a bumbling man, whom later she admits “was skilled at subtly eroding boundaries, making adolescent girls feel like adults” (60).

Described as a “creeper” (60) by Bodie’s high school friend Fran, Bloch was born in Missouri in 1962. Seemingly sweet and unassuming, his pleasant affect hides his predatory behavior. Benefitting from a power hierarchy, he nevertheless denies it, making his students think they are in control. As a round character, at least in Bodie’s imagination, his image shifts quickly from friendly young teacher to abusive predator as the narrative progresses.

At first, in Bodie’s memory, Beth serves as her antagonist, bullying her and serving as queen bee of Granby. As the novel progresses, Beth and Bodie begin to forge a somewhat icy alliance, as Bodie convinces her to testify again in the hearing, implicating Robbie in Thalia’s murder. In her adult life, she is the wife of a tech inventor, and even while at Granby Beth appears destined for greater things. Accordingly, this “queen bee” plays Queen Guinevere in the performance of Camelot. The on-again, off-again girlfriend of Dorian Culler, Bodie’s main tormentor, Beth teases Bodie mercilessly during her high school years.

Surprisingly, Beth hates Granby, which she tells Bodie at the hearing for the new trial. Granby represents the worst period of her life, and stands as a place where she had to endure gossip from other girls. Bloch also begins to pursue her while she is a student at Granby, touching her inappropriately until Thalia arrives, inexcusably leaving Beth with complicated feelings of jealousy and competition towards her new “rival” for Bloch’s affections. She tries to match Thalia with Robbie to divert Bloch’s attentions, but her plan backfires as Robbie, angry and jealous over Thalia’s illicit relationship with Bloch, kills Thalia in a fit of rage. Bodie and Beth also share Dorian as their main tormentor, for he secretly tapes Beth having sex with him at Mike’s house in Vermont, while Dorian’s friends watch.

Epitomizing the stereotypical all-American jock and good guy figure while at school, Mike ultimately becomes an academic who specializes in human rights research. His career path is ironic, considering his indirect role in condoning the harm caused by his friends while in school. In this way, Mike functions as a more covert antagonist, appearing kind and sweet, yet personifying the academic corruption and misused privilege that lurks in many elite institutions. When Mike appears at Granby toward the end of the novel, Bodie describes him as a nice person, who “hadn’t stood out academically at Granby” (133). Auditioning successfully for the role of Arthur while at school, he functions as an extension of Robbie in Bodie’s memory. A good friend of Robbie, both at Granby and later, Mike supplies Robbie with the trappings of wealth and privilege. One of the students at the mattress party the night of Thalia’s death, Mike helps protect Robbie by blaming Omar. Mike claims that Thalia haunts Robbie still, and Omar’s false conviction haunts Mike, at least toward the end.

Britt introduces the idea of a podcast about Thalia in the class Bodie teaches in 2018 at Granby. Eager and earnest, she appears committed to the truth and the idea that Omar was unjustly accused and convicted. Britt functions as a round character, becoming more realistic and learning to acknowledge the social privileges she inherits simply for being wealthy and white in modern American society. There are hints throughout the novel that Britt pushes Bodie, forcing her to examine long-buried memories of Granby.

While she is not an antagonist, she does serve as a foil for the young version of Bodie. When a student of color challenges her role in the Thalia podcast, Britt responds in ways that highlight her understanding of the role that racism plays in society today, even as her overly exaggerated apology makes her appear defensive. Along with Alder, she continues to work on the podcast She Is Drowned before joining a more professional podcast with Alder and Bodie. In the second half of the novel, she attends Smith and dates Alder.

Alder takes the podcast class with Britt in 2018. A round character, he remains enthusiastic and excitable even as he matures in the novel, working on a professional podcast with Bodie and Britt and serving as a member of the press during the hearing for a retrial. During the hearing, his excitement leads him to communicate with Bodie against the rules, and she notes that he is not good at keeping secrets.

He also acknowledges that his identity as a Black man in America keeps his hopes for justice in check. Just as Britt serves as a foil for the young Bodie, Alder serves as a foil for Omar, who recognizes the workings of justice and injustice. Alder and Britt date while she attends Smith and he attends Columbia.