Gold Cleave Quotes

In Cleave’s novel, Gold, his characters face destruction in a different manner, and must cope with the pressure and endure the toll it takes on their minds. Structured differently than Cleave’s other novels, Gold explores the destruction competition can cause, rather than violence. Critic Margaret Heffernan analyzes the frequency of competition in different areas and the positive and negative effects it has. She uses sports as one area in which competition can cause destruction: “Competition enlivens routine with drama, but when the stakes are high, so are the costs[...] sport--demonstrates how destructive competition is, when it comes to playing for the big prizes and huge rewards that professional athletes now pursue” (Heffernan). Sports

Zoe differs from Kate because her motivation lies solely behind the death of her brother. Her brother died while he and Zoe were racing, and Zoe copes by believing if she never loses a race again that her brother will come back. After time she can no longer rely on this way of thinking and suffers from the memory: “She didn’t remember any one particular day when she stopped believing that winning would bring Adam back[...] She gradually grew up, and time with its self-regarding eye built a monument to itself out of her memories[...] until it blocked the view of the past” (Gold 225-226). Zoe constantly looks back during her races in search for her brother, hoping he will be there. After recognizing that he will never be behind her again, Zoe tries to block out the past. This devastating experience scars Zoe and affects her attitude which causes her only to care about winning: “The only thing that kept her alive was winning, and without winning there was only blackness and despair. It had been like that since she could remember” (Gold 220). Her whole life since her brother dies is revolved around ensuring she wins, so without winning Zoe has nothing to her. Winning is all Zoe knows and is the only way she can cope with her past. She is not only coping with the loss of her brother, but the loss of her daughter that she chose to give up. When the time comes for the final race that decides whether Zoe or Kate will go to the Olympics, Zoe begins to revisit her past and her decisions, and accept that there is more to life than