Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Away by Amy Bloom-AP Language & Composition 4/09
Much of the novel, Away, centers around self-invention and reinvention. Identify some characters who invent themselves over the course of the novel? Which characters are successful? Which characters are unable to complete the process? Write an elaborate response with textual evidence to support your ideas. (Post one comment using MLA/Html format-no less than 300 words.)
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Away, by Amy Bloom is a novel with several interesting aspects and details. The first individual feature that I noticed was the fact that the novel was written, for the most part, in the present tense, something not commonly seen amongst many writers. This served the idea of reinvention well but was somewhat confusing. This happened because the technique made the characters seem as if they were constantly changing yet remaining the way that they had been.
For example, Gumdrop, upon her first encounter with Lillian, is portrayed as compassionate, if just a little cautious. When her new charge awakes, Gumdrop treats her with suspicion and later with a bit of trust. Because of the present tense, it would seem that every emotion remains although it undergoes various changes over time.
Lillian, the main character, underwent reinvention, as well. She arrived as a refugee, fleeing her country and the emptiness of her life since her immediate family was now lost to her. Upon her acquaintance with the more influential in society, she was forced to assume a more bold front and eventually learn to acclimate herself into her social surroundings. She who had once been a wife, daughter and mother was now a childless widow, a companion to both men and women, and a mistress to many. She had to adapt to different ways of life for her own survival and to fuel the hope she harbored of finding her daughter again, however improbable it would appear.
A character like Yaakov, however, was not so successful at reinventing his personality. After the loss of his family, he never seemed to fully recover, but instead masked his grief for several years in gratitude to his friend, Lillian’s father-in-law. His horizon, for a time, was brightened after meeting Lillian. He positively influenced her and was a main factor causing her to succeed in becoming more familiar with America and its culture. Unfortunately, this was as far as he appeared to go in his slow steps towards what may have been recovery. When Lillian left on her quest to find her final familial ties and fulfill her repressed longing for her child, he committed suicide and cut his life regrettably short. Such an action left no room for reinvention or self-invention.
In the end, many of the characters, such as Lillian’s relatives, her second husband, and most of her cohabitants in the Alaskan jail had changed slightly in character but for the most part remained the same as they had always been. Time was all that had been required to better understand the characters and their life stories, if they could be inferred. Although, self-invention and re-invention had not been the only prominent themes or symbols, they were greatly involved in the plot’s general advancement and its central themes.
Away, by Amy Bloom, is a fascinating story of an innocent and forthright young woman, Lillian, and her never-ending life journey. Throughout the story, the characters that she encounters range from boring and stuffy to wildly outspoken and daring. Some of these people embody multiple characters. Many are simply attempting to cover up their true personalities. Lillian herself becomes a new woman, as her experiences definitely change how she sees the world.
A prime example of someone who is constantly reinventing herself is Gumdrop. Her job as a prostitute dictates that she must conform to fit the ideal of her customers. This in itself entails constant reinvention as she is a different woman with each man. However, although she changes for those who pay her, she is, at the root of her characters, a kind and understanding woman who simply saw the wrong side of the world a few times too many.
Reuben Bernstein makes external changes to his life, but his true feelings are always the same. He feels the need to cover up his homosexuality to be accepted in society. He marries Lillian to satisfy the status quo, but he does not find true happiness in his life with her. In fact, his father is much more pleased with Lillian and her with him then Reuben. He does love her, to some degree, but never in the way she has expected from a husband. He is very conflicted and tries to reinvent himself as someone he simply is not.
Lillian, as the main character, is the one whose transformation is most readily felt by the reader. She comes to America with absolutely no money and only a few shreds of hope, but she manages to make the best possible life out of her situation. She uses her bold personality and relentless determination to constantly push forward and up the totem pole of society. However, she does not find true happiness in this, and is reduced back to her former poverty when she leaves to find true love and happiness, which lie with her daughter, Sophie. Although she never makes it to Sophie, the character arc that Lillian goes through shows what she truly holds dear underneath it all.
This novel has many themes, and change is definitely a huge part of what makes it so engaging and easily readable. These are realistic people with realistic backgrounds, and their experiences are conceivable, making the story very believable and all the more enjoyable for the reader.
One of the major themes of the novel is the idea of reinvention and self-adaptation to new realities. The protagonist, Lillian, faces many new situations and experiences as she comes to America and later searches for her daughter. The most dramatic expression of this theme is the moment when Lillian finds out that her daughter is alive at the window. Her experience is described as fire returning and not going out. Through all of her experiences, Lillian is many different things to different people. She is not the same person with Gumdrop as she is with Arthur Gilpin. These changes keep the reader in the dark to Lillian’s true feelings and thoughts. Does she really believe that she can find her daughter? How strong are her feelings for Reuben Bernstein? These questions are basis for conflicts within the novel. The reader must answer these questions by learning more about Lillian mostly through the dreams sequences, which reveal Lillian’s past. Another example of a person capable to survive and grow even through changes is Giplin, despite, his weak personality. Giplin struggles with transition, however, at the end of the novel, he is happily remarried. In Away, there are also characters, who fail to adapt and cannot survive as a result. The best example in the novel is Reuben Bernstein. Reuben is trapped in the illusion that he cannot love his mistress and that he just wants to have a good time. Through out their relationship, Reuben’s true feelings are revealed, “Reuben frowns when Lillian approaches because if he didn’t, the smile would break across his face…and the whole world would know what so far only Yaakov knows” (p. 43). His unwillingness to break this illusion leads to his eventual death from heart and weight problems. His inability to change and its consequences reveal the importance and emphasis on adaptation and change.
Amy Bloom’s novel, Away, talks about the journey of a young mother, Lillian, who devotes her life to looking for her lost daughter, Sophie. After loosing all of her family and everything she ever had, Lillian tries to make a new life in America and meets different kinds of people while doing so. These people vary to be accepted in society and belong to a new place that is not their home.
Lillian herself is one of those characters who changes in this novel. When in America, she finds herself feeling lonely and as though she has nothing to look forward too in life, until she finds out that her daughter is not dead. As Lillian begins her journey to find her daughter, she becomes a different person. She had begun her journey in America with no money, job, property or anything of value. Lillian, however, tries to find the good things in life and has good experiences while living in New York. True happiness comes into her life when she finds out her daughter is alive and was taken to Siberia by another family who was able to escape the pogrom. This highlights the entire story, given that the reader then realizes that Lillian’s true happiness and love will only lie in the memory and hope that her daughter had a good life, because she is never able to find her.
Other characters, such as Gumdrop and Reuben change drastically in this novel. Gumdrop makes herself the kind of woman that men want, once she is doing her job as a prostitute. She makes herself be whoever her costumers want her to be, but deep inside, the reader knows that she is a victim of life. Gumdrop realizes her many mistakes but is patient with herself, which helps her become a different woman, but someone who is not able to complete the process of becoming successful in life.
Ruben is one of the main character’s who does not reveal his true self because of fear. Ruben is a homosexual who does not want to be rejected by society and his family, specifically his father, because of who he is. He marries Lillie, hoping that it would make him happy, but he is never able to love her and has to live in a lie to keep others happy.
This novel in general, holds many characters that vary in the way they think, feel and believe. We see different characters through Lillie’s journey that are able to make a better life for themselves and some who cannot. Even though they are not able to succeed at times, they learn much from their attempts to do so.
The novel Awayby Amy bloom presents itself as a novel of reinvention. It become apparent very early on the Lillian must change if she plans to fit into a very different society. The characters in this novel come from different backgrounds, countries, and statuses. Although some of the characters try to mask their personalities, many go through experiences that allow them to reinvent themselves.
At the beginning of the novel the reader is introduced to Lillian Leyb who believes she is the sole survivor of a pogrom that has killed her whole family, including her daughter Sophie. Lillian is obviously overcome with grief from this tragedy, however she is very much aware that if she does not find work she will not last long in her new country. This novel tells of a mother’s journey to be reunited with her daughter and how Lillian herself changes along the way. The change in Lillian in the novel can easily be seen the reader. Upon arriving to America she has close to nothing, no family, no money, and little hope. It is her persistent determination that lands her with the job of seamstress by day and mistress to an actor by night. However, the biggest change in Lillian comes with the news that her daughter is still alive. This gives Lillian the push she needs to jump back into life. She now has a purpose, to find her daughter and this will bring happiness. The theme of maternal instincts in prevalent here as she smuggles herself on trains, rides mules, and walks longs distances on foot all in the name of motherly love.
Although some characters are able to reinvent themselves in this novel, not all are quite so lucky. Yaakov is an example of this. His situation is similar to that of Lillian’s however, he never is quite able to recover from losing his family. Yaakov is unable to deal with his grief and eventually commits suicide. This action closes all doors that may of allowed him to be reinvented.
This theme of self-reinvention gives the reader hope as the audience follows along on Lillian’s journey. The realistic characters that play roles in the story lead the reader to believe that they too can reinvent themselves.
The exciting and surprising series of events in Away lead Lillian through the path towards her life, which does not necessarily only consist of her destination, but, as the cliché says, was the journey itself. Throughout, many characters where introduced, welcomed, and often cut off. Lillian’s adventures took her from a bold, confident, colored prostitute with dreams of money, to a small, dangerous prison mate with narrow eyes and a sneaky disposition. These two characters touched Lillian’s life in ways that she would carry with her forever. Both characters, Gumdrop and Chinky, harbored bigger plans for themselves than what was placed before them, which in itself was motivation for the emotionally exhausted Lillian to keep going.
Gumdrop, a successful prostitute, dreamed of being the most powerful, influential madam around, while Chinky silently dreamed of another life besides lying cheating and stealing.
While Gumdrop’s colorful disposition could have very well carried her to the height of the prostitution industry, the unfortunate encounter with her cousin summoned the last of her weakening courage, and Gumdrop took the path many choose, the one of failure. Although she felt forced to reinvent herself as a more moral person, with her wit and street smarts Gumdrop could have made it anywhere. She ironically abandoned her clandestine dreams of prostitution for a life of pious instruction and devotion to a new generation in education. Gumdrop, on the path to successful immorality, instead deserted her dreams and settled into a socially rewarding career. Her choices force the reader to ask themselves whether Gumdrop should have kept working for her dreams, which is what we are taught to believe is always correct, even if her dreams where generally viewed as negative. Gumdrop essentially failed at her intended reinvention of herself. However, in a more literal sense, she succeeds in changing herself in general.
Chinky, on the other hand, succeeded in ways that others would not have imagined. While swindling her way out of prison and back into her old life of lying, she is struck by love, and literally walks away from everything she knows into another world. She reinvents the dangerous little Chinky from head to toe, inside and out. Her Asian features concealed beneath a mask of Inuit tendencies and traits, and her sneaky ways concealed beneath a mask of complacent living with her love render Chinky a totally new, different person. Although Chinky was well suited for the life of illegal stealing and cheating, it seems that even the toughest characters splinter under the weight of true love.
The determination and stamina of both characters seriously impacted Lillian. In her own ways Lillian is reinvented numerous times over, on the outside and inside. Every new situation creates another chameleonic opportunity for Lillian to blend in how she has never done before. It is a testament to her character how flawlessly she fits in to every possibly combination of characters she is surrounded by. In the end, even though Sophie is living elsewhere, never having met with her mother again, Lillian has made a series of personal growths that have shaped her into one of the strongest heroines in literature. Her awesome willpower to continue forward and her personal motivation are mementos of previous encounters filtered through her own personality.
Away by Amy Bloom, is a novel filled with rich character descriptions that make the events of the novel seem more real. One of the most interesting aspects of these characterizations is the fact that many of the characters try to reinvent themselves throughout the course of the novel. Bloom emphasizes this in the interesting way that she describes what happens to the characters after they leave the story. One of the major themes of the novel is the way people try to change or disguise the people that they think they are due to the circumstances in which they live. Some are successful and some are not.
Many of the characters in the novel are not successful at reinventing themselves. Yaakov spends much of his time in the story trying to hide his depression following the death of his wife and children. He unsuccessfully attempted suicide many years before the start of the story and pretends that he had changed. He is mostly successful at convincing Reuben that he is no longer suicidal, but he is not as successful at convincing Lillian. When everyone else tries to dissuade Lillian from going on what appears to be a suicidal journey, Yaakov encourages her, showing how he does believe in living for the sake of living. He is always cheerful with Lillian when he tells her what she must do, but he eventually succumbs to his depression and commits suicide after Lillian has left.
Some characters are successful at convincing others that they have a different identity, but are never really able to change themselves. Meyer Burstein tries to maintain his onstage persona as a matinee idol, hiding his homosexuality. He manages to hide this well enough that he has a successful career in Hollywood, which might not have accepted him if it new everything about him. However, though he tries to change himself by making Lillian his mistress, he realizes that he cannot change who he is.
Lillian’s struggle is all about self-reinvention. She once had a husband and a daughter, but that was taken from her. Now, she has to become someone else to survive. Almost everywhere she goes, she has to prostitute herself for jobs, transportation, and money. To undergo her terrible ordeal, she has to embrace a darker side of herself and let it consume her. Without this, she would not have been able to do many of the things that she did in the novel. This is central to the novel, which is all about the ways that people have to change themselves to achieve something.
Awayy, by Amy Bloom, is a captivating novel about a young mother named Lillian, who does everything in her power to find her lost daughter, Sophie. After witnessing the violent murders of her husband and family, she decides to come to America to start a new life. After arriving in America she meets different kinds of people all of which range in personalities and social statuses. Many have multiple characteristics and just like her, they act differently depending on who they are around. Others attempt to cover up there true personalities in order to be accepted in society. Lillian definitely reinvents herself throughout the novel in order to fit in with her social surroundings and circumstances.
An excellent example of someone who reinvents herself constantly is Gumdrop. Gumdrop hasn’t exactly had a great life. Her life, just like Lillian’s has been marked by the death of loved ones. Gumdrop’s profession as a prostitute forces her to become whatever her clients wish her to be. They are the ones who pay for her services, so they get to dictate how she acts even who she is while with them. Gumdrop constantly changes during the couple chapters, but the reader knows that Gumdrop hides her true personalities almost as a defense mechanism. Gumdrop is really just a victim of life, and even though she has suffered a lot she still has some kindness left inside her. She doesn’t quite become a successful person in life, but eventually is able to free herself from selling her body to men for money.
Lillian, as the main character, in the story definitely reinvents herself a lot throughout the novel. When Lillian is first introduced she has just arrived to America and is a poor refuge girl living with her relative. She then manages to escalate in society by reinventing herself and manages to marry a rich man. She even becomes her husband’s father’s mistress. Even though her social status is high, she isn’t happy. She finds happiness and hope when she hears that her daughter, Sophie is still alive. Lillian then decides to go on a journey to find her daughter and must reinvent herself a couple more times in order to fit in with her circumstances and environment. While on this journey, Lillian really seems to find happiness even though she is unable to find her daughter. The happiness itself comes from Lillian hoping that her daughter has had a good life so far and is happy.
Rueben Bernstein is also a character who hides his true self in order to be accepted by society. Rueben is a homosexual who fears being rejected by his family and society due to his sexual preferences. His father is a very rich and respected man in society and Reuben is afraid of telling him who he really is. Reuben only makes external changes never personality changes. He never changes his sexual preferences even though he marries Lillian. His marriage to Lillian was another way to mask his true identity. He felt that if he married her he would find happiness with her and maybe even love her. He reinvents himself as a man with a happy marriage, which is something that was completely untrue. He loved Lillian to a certain extent, but never to the extent that she wished to be loved.
The reoccurring them of reinvention really gives the readers a sense of mystery. The reader is always constantly wondering how each character will think and act next. This causes the characters to appear more realistic and become more appealing to the reader.
Amy Bloom’s novel Away was an extremely absorbing and impressive novel about the life of a young woman, Lillian and her multiple journeys first beginning in Russia where we learn her husband and parents were killed and she was separated from her three year old daughter Sophie. After this horrific event takes place, Lillian immigrates to America in hopes of forging a new life for herself. When she is informed that her daughter Sophie is still alive, her conventional tale of an immigrant coming to America to start a better life takes a twist and becomes even more epic and legendary. Lillian begins to travel throughout the United States, from New York to Chicago, to Seattle, and finally to Seattle in hopes of finding Sophie.
Blooms novel follows the primary themes of self-reinvention and self-invention. I feel as though Lillian definitely embodies the most personal reinvention as she is forced to mingle with an unfamiliar culture and take on unfamiliar jobs as well to be able to survive in the fast paced city life of New York. When Lillian first comes to America, she knows only a few words of English; this is where her first change takes place, when she begins to learn the language. Yaakov Shimmelman is introduced as one of Lillian’s only friends and connections in New York. Shimmelman gives her a thesaurus which she studies avidly and attempts to teach her the American culture. Being born to two parents who emigrated from foreign countries and listening to their stories, I understand how difficult it is to reinvent one’s self in America. You almost completely lose your original culture as you are swept up in the American melting pot. As Lillian makes her way up in the city by mingling with the higher end of society, she is also forced to lose several of her inhibitions. As a young, beautiful woman, Lillian begins to exploit herself in order to survive. Lillian’s sexual experiences lead her to another reinvention as she explores pleasure with the same sex. From a once gathered mother and wife, Lillian had become a seemingly childless widow. This drastic change evidently altered Lillian’s thoughts about her personal choices and reservations. I feel as though Lillian’s reinvention and self-invention were successful as she was able to adapt to several situations that were thrown at her along her journey.
Although Lillian’s reinvention was somewhat forced, the reinvention of Reuben
Bernstein was absolutely artificial. His synthetic marriage to Lillian was brought upon by pressure from society and the need to please his family. He forces himself to love Lillian although he can never have true feelings for her because he is a closet homosexual. His need to please and his inability to free himself from his lies eventually lead to his demise. Reuben is an example of a character that was never truly able to complete the reinvention process. Based on this theme of reinvention and self-invention, with Bernstein’s downfall, Bloom reiterates that change is extremely important and necessary for survival.
Several characters embraced change and reinvention while others lacked the ability to. It is evident from Bloom’s novel that change is always a welcome necessity. Characters such as Yaakov and Reuben were unable to adapt and ended up miserable or dead, while characters such as Lillian and Chinky reinvent themselves out of immediate need for change. These two characters ended up on top at the end of the novel because they were able to adapt and allow room for mistakes and improvements.
Amy Bloom’s Away presents an array of emotions and perceptions intertwining through the ideas of identity, social condition, and the beginning and ending of life. The story of Lillian Leyb continues in a historical setting yet is told in present tense, giving a more personal sense of writing.
The concept of Language is used as a means of holding on to the Lillian of the past. Picking up the English-Russian dictionary was her way of connecting herself to a new life- a new person. Clinging onto her language in America was her way of remembering who she was and why she came to America.
Although the novel is fictional, the proceedings that occur throughout are based on true events. Lillian is the fictional character portraying the well-known “woman who walked to Russia”. However, the characters she meets along the way are used to convey the reality of her life in a way that cannot be told from only her point of view.
The prostitute Gumdrop serves as a character to guide Lillian, yet it is evident that Gumdrop is still finding her own way through life. She is in need of giving customers the type of woman they want and therefore losing a bit of herself every time. In a way, the same goes for Ruben. He is so afraid of how other people perceive him, he has to change who he is because he believes this will satisfy other people.
“She [Lillian] believes in fear as a motivator and she believes in curiosity…and she believes in will.” Fear consistently motivates her actions, such as the murder of Gumdrops cousin and pimp, who had been cheating Gumdrop out of her money. Her belief in will has led her to perseverance, as is necessary for the journey ahead.
There is hope, yet there is emptiness. She realizes somewhere during her time in America that her life is an empty hollow of nothing. There is no meaning to her life. With Lillian life was always insufficient. Until she discovers that Sophie may still be alive. This is where her life takes yet again a drastic turn and this type going back to her painful past. It gives her hope that her life will be in some way meaningful.
Away, by Amy Bloom, is a captivating novel about the long journey taken by a young mother named Lillian, in search of her lost daughter, Sophie. After witnessing the violent murders of her husband and family, she decides to come to America to start a new life. Lillian Leyb’s journey takes her across the globe, from Russia to New York’s Lower East Side, to Seattle, to Alaska, to Siberia. Once she migrated in America she was introduced to various people ranging in personalities and social statuses. Many have multiple characteristics and just like her, they act differently depending on who they are around. Others attempt to cover up there true personalities in order to be accepted in society. Lillian herself becomes a new woman, it’s as if she is revived and reinvents herself as a result of her experiences. Those experiences definitely change her view of the world and the society.
A superb example of someone who is frequently reinventing themselves is Gumdrop. Her profession in life is one that she doesn’t have much say in. Her job as a prostitute is to keep her clients happy which forces her to do whatever is asked. Alone this task has reinvention in itself for every customer change is required. Even though Gumdrop is constantly changing throughout the novel, the reader is aware of the fact that she is hiding her true personalities. In the end she doesn’t become a rich, thriving, successful person in life, but soon enough she is able to stop having to sell her body for money.
Lillian Leyb is the main character as well as the protagonist in the story. There are definitely multiple points in the novel in which she reinvents herself. In the beginning of the novel, when Lillian is first introduced she has just arrived in America with no money, she is a young poor girl living off of her relatives. With her strong will power she is able to up her status in society as a result of reinventing herself once again. In the end of all that, even though she does not find true love and happiness she manages to marry a rich man which then leads to her becoming the mistress for her husband’s father. Even with her excelling status in society, she still is not content. Her only true happiness comes out when she is aware that her one and only daughter, Sophie is still alive. Lillian goes on a journey to find her daughter and here she must reinvent herself again in order to adapt to her surroundings. Unfortunately, Lillian really is unable to find her daughter but she does find happiness after all.
Another character in the story is Rueben Bernstein, his situation is a little different then Gumdrop’s and Lillian, but he is yet another character who hides his true identity to assure his acceptance in society. Rueben is a homosexual who feels he must hide it or else he will be rejected by his family and society. He is afraid of damaging his father’s social status for he is a very rich and valued man in society, which also makes Reuben question whether or not to tell his father who he really is. Reuben only makes external changes never internal. He marries Lillian to fit in, but he does not find true love and happiness when he is with her. But when he is with her he has reinvented himself into a man who has accepted his marriage and made something out of it. He loved Lillian to a certain extent, but never to the extent that she wished to be loved.
This novel has one main theme, reinvention which attracts the reader deeper into the novel. The fact that Bloom uses a third-person omniscient narrator; it allows the novel to jump forward and backward in time and between parallel narratives. The story base is a realistic plot that allows the reader to connect with the audience. The reader is constantly pondering of what will happen next with each character. This novel is an enjoyable and comfortable read because of the writing.
Away , by Amy Bloom is a captivating novel surrounding the theme of self-reinvention. It is clear from the opening chapter of the book that the journeys of its characters will lead them to different versions of themselves. However, what distinguishes these characters is how they accept, reject, or choose to make these changes.
Yaakov at the beginning of the story seems to be a simple man. As the story continues, he becomes more mysterious as we discover his past, much like Lillian's, is tainted with the loss of loved ones, and, for that matter, the loss of love as well. It soon becomes clear that Yaakov's past and loss drives his life, that his main goal is to forget, to create a new "pastless" life and a future free of pain. With Lillian, Yaakov sees possibilty in his dream, reinvention is still an option. However, when Lillian leaves, so does his dream, driving him to self destruction.
Along with Yaakov on the search for reinvention are the Burstein men. Both Reuben and Meyer are trying to cope with being someone they don’t want to be. Meyer is hiding his homosexuality, while Reuben is secretly balancing lovers, mistresses, and wives. They each want to reinvent themselves into someone open and honest, who has one person to be, not two or three. However, neither of them are brave enough to admit to this challenge let alone face it.
Lillian is the only successful one in her search for reinvention. She first accomplishes this goal when she moves to America and becomes successful, by society’s definition. Then, she combines her old passionate self with her new, brave, American self to reinvent Lillian and gather the courage to set out to retrieve her daughter, being the only main character in the novel to achieve self reinvention.
The novel Away, by Amy Bloom, is an intriguing novel about the life and journey of Lillian as she makes way for a new life in America. As she travels through her journey, she encounters many characters along the way that try to re-invent themselves as she does. Some succeed in this, while others fail at portraying this new façade.
Lillian constantly has to re-invent herself throughout the novel, and she succeeds in doing so. After suffering the loss of her entire family and those she held dear, Lillian is forced to travel abroad to America to create a new life for herself and escape from her past. She re-invents herself to become whatever will get her a job, but it is her bold personality ultimately grants her good fortune. As Lillian becomes immersed in high-class society, she must constantly re-invent herself, and consequently is not happy. It is only after learning that her daughter is alive that she is happy. While on the journey to find her daughter, Lillian re-invents herself to achieve her goal, even if it means doing things she never thought she was capable of. Although Lillian had to re-invent herself throughout the novel, it was part of her steadfast determination that brought her closer to achieving her goals.
Other characters in the novel are not so successful in re-inventing themselves. Ruben Bernstein is an example of this as he tries to hide his homosexuality from society. Because of his family’s wealth and respect in society, Ruben tries to re-invent himself to be someone he is not, and marries Lillian. However, he is unsuccessful in doing so as he becomes very unhappy and cannot love Lillian the way he had hoped and the way she deserves.
Another character unsuccessful in reinventing himself is Yaakov. Yaakov tries to hide his depression and sorrow over the death of his family and re-invent himself as a changed man, but he fails. He manages to convince most people that he has changed, but not Lillian. Although he tries to become this cheerful person around her and others, he ultimately cannot hide from how he feels and commits suicide after Lillian leaves for her journey.
Away, written by Amy Bloom, tells the story of Lillian Leyb, a Russian immigrant who takes a journey across the United States and discovers a plethora of different sorts of people, ones that she had never encountered before. Lillian’s journey, ironically, never reaches its destination – finding her long-lost daughter, Sophie. Instead, Lillian finds heartbreak, adventure, and ultimately, love. By the time she reaches Alaska her quest for Sophie is almost forgotten, because the love she was searching for when she started her journey – that of her daughter – is satisfied with the discovery of her new persona and her new life with John.
Naturally, Lillian’s journey changed her completely. She immigrated to the United States as a lost and frightened refugee. Despite this, Lillian was able to use her charm to land a job, and in turn use that job to work her way up in society. Her affair with her husband’s father, Reuben Burstein, enables her to forge a friendship with Yaakov, a man with a great mind but many regrets. Lillian invents her “New York” persona – a savvy woman not living passionately, but with many comforts, taking what she can get from society. This may be a persona, but it sticks true to Lillian’s basic ideals. Throughout the novel, she is tough and hardworking, a woman with a backbone. The biggest transformation she goes through is near the end when she meets John. It is here that Lillian finally moves from living “basically” to passionately: she finally lets herself love freely and without restraint.
There are other characters that remain static throughout the novel – such as Sophie. Although Sophie is a main character, she never exists as an active character, but rather as a prominent memory and Lillian’s reason for returning to Russia. Sophie never changes in Lillian’s mind, remaining the ideal of love and beauty. It is only once Lillian lets go of Sophie and this ideal that she is able to love freely once again.
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