Upgrade

Kara is the antithesis to Logan in terms of both temperament and motivation. Unlike Logan, who subconsciously sought to fill the shoes of his mother, Kara wanted nothing to do with any of it. She left to join the military, eventually becoming a member of the special forces. Kara demonstrates some resentment toward their mother throughout the novel, but when she and Logan discover the video recording left by Miriam, it is Kara who follows in her footsteps, agreeing with the proposition that the risk of killing many is worth the reward of saving more.

The climactic scene, in which the dying Kara speaks her last words to her brother after he shoots her, exemplifies her character. She says to him, “You can’t do nothing, Logan” (320). The comment suggests that what motivates Kara the most is a cynical worldview, perhaps formed by her responses to her own trauma. Whereas Logan ultimately learns how to cope with it, Kara never really does.

Edwin is Logan’s boss at the GPA. As a government agent, Edwin is ethically compromised by some of the secretive and draconian measures the government takes in the novel, especially Logan’s detention. Edwin’s motivations are not always immediately clear. While he doesn’t explicitly confirm Logan’s suspicion that the GPA has told his family he’s dead, Edwin does simultaneously offer an apology for it. This suggests that Edwin understands the ethical ramifications of his actions but rationalizes them as necessary. Edwin is willing to stand behind the excuse that he is just following orders.

Edwin is offered the chance at redemption toward the end of the novel. After Logan confronts him in his house, Edwin seizes the opportunity to make things right. He allies himself with Logan and the cause, which is to stop Kara from enacting her plan. In the final scene, when the Department of Defense arrives, Edwin makes clear that he had nothing to do with their involvement; this time, he wants it known that he is aligned with the side that he sees as right and just. As a parting gift of allegiance, Edwin texts Logan a coded message letting him know that the DOD will be hunting him.

Though she never makes an appearance as a living character, Logan’s mother, Miriam, casts a shadow over the emotional arc of the novel in addition to setting the entire plot in motion. Miriam was the brains behind the genetic modification of crops that led to a global famine that killed 200 million and destroyed economies. Logan has a complicated relationship with his mother. He is motivated in large measure by filling her shoes, specifically as this relates to his intellectual pursuits. Through childhood and into his career, Logan admires his mother and wants to be her intellectual equal. However, when the Great Starvation takes place, Logan becomes burdened with guilt by association. For her part, in order to escape the scrutiny brought about by her involvement in the catastrophe, Miriam fakes her own suicide. This further complicates Logan’s relationship with his mother; his mixed feelings are summed up in his response to Ava when she asks if Miriam was evil: “No. There are very few truly evil people in the world. She was just…deeply flawed” (50). The ellipsis here indicates a pause, a signal that Logan doesn’t have the language to articulate the balance between good intentions and evil outcomes. Miriam’s intentions have been forgotten in the fallout, and Logan is the only one who can reclaim her legacy.

When Logan learns that Miriam is alive, his resentment is so intense as to provoke an immediate physical reaction: “My vision swarmed. Chest tightening, hands tingling […] I was shaking with rage” (82). At this point, Logan sees Miriam’s actions as unjustifiable and inexcusable, no matter her intentions. When Logan and Kara find Miriam’s video message, it offers both a persuasive argument and an apology. Miriam’s own distorted perceptions of what her life means create a tension between her surviving offspring. Logan, able to see the bigger picture, does not accept the idealism inherent in her message. By contrast, Kara accepts the logic that the upgrade is the only way to stave off doom. Miriam has not learned from her previous failures; her insistence that genetic modifications, deadly on a massive scale, are ethical indicates that her character has not grown in any appreciable way. While her presence looms large in Logan’s life and levies a heavy emotional burden, ultimately her single-minded and myopic vision is replaced by Logan’s far more nuanced solution.

Logan’s wife and daughter, respectively, Beth and Ava are two characters who are not really explored in any depth. They function as foils for Logan’s own character development. They offer a stable and intimate domestic life that stands in stark contrast to Logan’s past, marked as it was by tragedy, and the reader can infer that this stability, and Kara’s lack of it, is one of the primary reasons that Logan and Kara evolved into fundamentally opposite people. Beth and Ava also function as the only emotional tether Logan has after receiving the upgrade that allows him to put intellect over sentiment; without their existence, Logan might be more easily swayed by the cold logic of Kara, who has no close emotional ties.

Logan’s letters to Beth and Ava also function as a literary device that gives the readers a window into his emotional state and allows for the passage of time between the two upgrades to be briefly summarized for the sake of pacing.