Moon Over Manifest

Gideon Tucker is Abilene’s father, although for much of the novel—in letters and in Miss Sadie’s stories—he appears as Jinx. The nickname Jinx provides insight into his character’s conflicts. A jinx, in this case, is a bearer of bad luck. Abilene doesn’t know much about her father, which places her in the same situation as the reader. When she lists the things she knows about Gideon, it’s usually a list of abilities and behaviors. Although she feels abandoned, she is in Manifest because Gideon is trying to protect her. This protectiveness is at the core of his character. Even as an adult, he will interpret the misfortunes of those around him as punishments for his curse. He doesn’t believe that Abilene is safe in his presence.

Gideon’s parents died when he was young. Like Abilene, he was suddenly in the care of one authority figure. However, in Gideon’s case, this meant that he became the ward of his uncle Finn, an abusive, cruel, manipulative grifter. Finn made him unsure and dependent and left him with an unhealthy self-image. Gideon is characterized by the absence of peace. He is always on the run from a crime he didn’t commit and from a curse that isn’t real. As a child, Gideon is suggestible, like most inexperienced youth. Even as an adult, however, the belief that he is cursed persists.

His moments of greatest peace occur in Manifest. Gideon arrives in the town under similar circumstances to Abilene. He is friendless and confused and feels like an outsider. Ned and Shady make him feel safe for the first time. He trusts Shady enough to eventually ask him about curses.

Ned is Gideon’s best friend, and Finn is Gideon’s worst enemy. They are the foundations of his identity. When they both die, it leaves Gideon truly directionless, and he can’t bear to stay in Manifest. At the end of the story, he returns. Abilene has helped him evolve back into Gideon, leaving Jinx behind. She says, “I’d told him the story I’d needed to hear. And I knew he needed to hear it too, all the way to the end” (340). Gideon has proof that he is not cursed, and now he and Abilene can learn who they will be now.

When Abilene first meets Miss Sadie, her impressions are uncharitable: “She was a pathetic sight. What kind of purveyor of the future could only tell stories about the past?” (69). Miss Sadie’s primary characteristics are her pain, being misunderstood by everyone in town, her monologues, and her insistence that she is a diviner.

Initially, Miss Sadie appears to be the spooky old woman who the children either fear or mock. Her gate announces that she lives at “Perdition,” which is a place of eternal suffering. The word is actually “Redizon,” her last name, but perdition better describes her state prior to her time with Abilene.

Miss Sadie represents the most heartbreaking aspects of the early 20th century’s immigrant experience. She comes to America with Ned (then Benedek), who is four years old. She is refused entry and returns to Europe, with Ned staying behind. When they separate, she tells him that her heart will be the compass that brings her back to him. She keeps her promise, but things have changed drastically by the time she returns to America. She can’t find Ned and wanders for a year. When she gets a clue, she goes west to Manifest, only to find Ned adopted by someone else.

People mistrust Miss Sadie because of her heritage as a Romani person, referred to in the novel as a “Gypsy.” Her sacrifice is a representation of motherly love. She faces a choice in Manifest: “If she reveals herself as his mother, she will bring shame on him. They will shun him the way she has been shunned” (332). She stays because she can’t bear not to be close to him, even though he’ll never know the truth about their relationship. At the end of the story, she allows Abilene to clean the wound in her leg, signaling that she is prepared to heal now that she has helped everyone else.