How Does Leonie Change Throughout The Novel

Outside factors can often create a greater want for freedom in individuals. This can be seen in the novel through Leonie’s character as her desire for independence increases due to the freedom she feels when she is with Michael. Given’s death traumatized Leonie, and felt the need to escape from her feeling of grief. During this period, Michael became Leonie’s escape. Michael turned Leonie’s unhappy life around by being there for her. He did what Leonie’s parent’s could not do for her due to their own distress. Michael and Leonie’s attachment to each other grew over time, and Michael became the factor that indirectly created a need for freedom inside Leonie. The escape that Leonie felt by being with Michael became something that she began to

Leonie’s character demonstrates this through her relationship with her children that is one of the biggest failures in the novel as a result of her tendency to want freedom and escape from situations and people that require her presence. Leonie’s children, Jojo and Kayla have constantly felt neglected by their mother and hence, they grew to become children that did not need their mother’s shadow above them. Instead, Kayla relied on her older brother more than her own mother. This is shown in the novel when Leonie tries to hold a sick Kayla however Kayla “cries and grabs at [Jojo’s] shirt and holds so tightly, her little knuckles turn white.” This demonstrates the love and protection that Kayla feels with her older brother which contrasts with the little love and protection she feels with Leonie. Leonie’s desire to be free and away from her children’s responsibilities ended up pushing her children away from her further than she could imagine. Leonie failed in building a relationship with her kids in which they could trust her and feel protected by her. Hence, even when Leonie tried healing a sick Kayla with her minimal knowledge of herbs, Jojo could not trust her as, “...she ain’t Mam. She ain’t Pop. She ain’t never healed nothing or grown nothing in her life, and she don’t know.” Despite Leonie’s effort to be a mother to Kayla when Kayla needed it the most, Jojo could not

Although Leonie’s desire to be independent and free is achieved to the greatest extent possible as her actions that put her desires above her relationships are no longer restricted, she eventually feels discontent in the relationships that failed as a result of her actions. Soon, the children that she wanted to escape from became something that she periodically felt a huge want for. Leonie began wanting her kids to need her as she saw how they did not reach for her even at their worst moments. This is demonstrated in the novel when Kayla reaches for Jojo instead of Leonie and Leonie “wanted [Kayla] to leap for [her]” and “[wanted] her to burrow in to [her] for succor instead of her brother.” The responsibilities that she kept finding ways to escape to fulfill her desire of being free became the responsibilities that she wished her children would give back to her. The failure she was as a mother filled her with unhappiness that she only distinctly felt in certain overwhelming situations. Additionally, this unhappiness also carried onto her failure in other relationships as well. This is shown in the novel when Leonie feels as if she is “never good enough for” Jojo “Just Leonie, a name wrapped around the same disappointed syllables [she’d] heard from Mama, from Pop,