Absolution

Charlene is Tricia’s close friend and the deuteragonist of Absolution. Her character anchors much of the narrative. Smart, beautiful, and manipulative, Charlene takes Tricia under her wing after they meet at a cocktail party.

Like Tricia, Charlene is highly intelligent, but her outspoken confidence and her voracious philanthropy make her a foil to Tricia’s character. Charlene is deeply affected by the world’s evils, to the point that she is dependent on alcohol and haunted by recurrent night terrors. She believes that turning away from the suffering of others is immoral, a principle that guides her every action. Charlene embodies the concept of tikkun olam, facing the world’s darkness with singular bravery and unflappable determination.

Outwardly, Charlene upholds an image of feminine perfection that Tricia aspires to. She is beautiful, admired in her social circle, a seemingly devoted wife and the mother of three healthy children. In truth, Charlene subverts this archetype. She abuses pills and alcohol, cheats on Kent with multiple men, and often leaves her children with household help to pursue her own interests. Charlene deeply resents the restrictions placed upon her because of her gender, and curates an identity that is entirely separate from her husband and children.

Alice McDermott explores Charlene’s faults as well as her triumphs. For all her drive to do good, Charlene’s viewpoint is limited by her status as a wealthy American in war-torn Vietnam. While her acts of charity accomplish moments of relief and joy for their recipients, they ultimately do nothing to address the deeper structural issues at work in Vietnam. At times, she makes decisions for other people on the assumption that she knows what is good for them. Additionally, she can be dismissive of the indigenous Vietnamese women whose hard work supports her lofty charitable goals. Despite her flaws, the narrative treats Charlene with empathy and respect. She is an object of admiration for Tricia and others, a woman who earnestly and bravely tries to better the world despite the factors stacked against her.

In the narrative present, Charlene has been deceased for two decades, but her presence lingers over the novel’s surviving characters. Charlene is a complex character, weaving together several of Absolution’s themes: the complex interior lives of military wives, the intersection of humanitarianism and white saviorism, and the question of moral obligation.

Peter Kelly is Tricia’s husband, a civilian advisor for the CIA. Deceased by the time Tricia writes to Rainey, Peter nonetheless plays an important role in the narrative. In the 1960s, he is an affable young Irish Catholic man with an abiding sense of patriotism and an attendant loathing of communism. Though well-intentioned, Peter displays ignorance about Vietnam’s history. He supports Diem’s corrupt regime because Diem is also a Catholic, ignoring Diem’s persecution of Buddhists.

Through Peter and Tricia’s marriage, McDermott explores the gendered dynamics of marriage during the 1960s. Tricia and Peter are madly in love as young newlyweds. Peter is largely characterized as a kind-hearted and gentle man, a doting husband who loves his wife. Despite this, he does not quite treat Tricia as his equal. McDermott highlights several instances in which Peter dismisses Tricia’s feelings or speaks to her “not as his wife but as his charge” (41). There is an unspoken assumption that Peter’s identity subsumes and overrides Tricia’s— during disagreements, he has the final say, and Tricia is expected to submit to his authority. That an otherwise sympathetic character displays such casual sexism highlights how deeply ingrained patriarchal attitudes were in the 1960s.

Rainey is Charlene’s daughter and the secondary narrator of Absolution. Part 2 of the novel consists of a letter from an adult Rainey to Tricia. In 1963, Rainey is 7 or 8 years old, a sweet and shy girl who inadvertently catalyzed the events of the novel by showing Tricia her Barbie doll. Young Rainey is shown yearning for Charlene’s often withheld affection.

As a teenager, Rainey is critical of Charlene, mocking her substance dependency and her misguided charity work in Vietnam. Like many others in her generation, Rainey decries the US’s intervention in the Vietnam War, accusing her parents of participating in a misguided effort that needlessly sent tens of thousands of young men to their deaths. She views Charlene through an intensely critical modern eye. Rainey concludes that her mother did not accomplish any significant good.

Only after having a family of her own does Rainey’s opinion of her mother soften. She realizes that Charlene was walking a delicate balance between protecting her family and exercising her own agency, and is grateful to her mother for ensuring the safety and prosperity of their little unit. Rainey primarily serves as a lens through which readers can see a different side of Charlene.

Dom Carey is a friend of Tricia’s and Charlene’s, and later Rainey’s. Tricia first encounters Dom as a friendly-faced young CO in Saigon, newly married and with a baby on the way. Dom accompanies Tricia and Charlene on several of their charitable endeavors, displaying empathy and an ability to connect with everyone.

As an adult, Rainey meets an elderly Dom, who is still married and has five children. He is a particularly attentive and loving father to his adult son Jamie, who has Down syndrome. Rainey is struck by Dom’s good-hearted nature. Their budding friendship is cut short when Dom dies saving his son Jamie from a freak accident.

Stella Carney is Tricia’s best friend from university. She is a dedicated activist who never hesitates to speak her mind. Stella is willing to put herself in harm’s way for the causes she believes in, believing that for absolution to occur, “there has to be retribution” (129) for the sins of the past. She is a foil to the timid and family-oriented Tricia. Absolution draws direct parallels between Stella and Charlene, both outspoken women who defy the gendered conventions of their time to exercise their values.