Patsy Maclemoore Guilt

Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Blame, embodies the epic struggle of guilt. The power that guilt holds over the protagonist is evident throughout the entire novel. The author, Michelle Huneven, portrays the protagonist’s struggles by highlighting her inability to move on, to build relationships, and to find happiness. Her power struggle not only steers the plot of this novel, but it also enhances the overall meaning of the work as she rebuilds her life from the bottom up. The majority of the novel occurs after the protagonist, Patsy MacLemoore, is involved in a car accident that killed a mother and daughter. One night, one ---utterly intoxicating night---led to the death of two people as she pulled into her driveway. Guilt’s power took over immediately, and every decision that followed would bounced right back to it as if she needed permission from it. Patsy no longer had control over her life, guilt did. She settled for a man that used her only for Thursday nights, she settled for a job that didn’t appreciate her potential, and lastly, she settled for a life of sorrow and remorse.

Even with that extreme revelation, Patsy didn’t seem to accept that she wasn’t the one to blame. She couldn’t grasp the idea of her innocence. How did this power still have such a hold on her? Why was she apt to take on guilt so readily? Two people were still dead, and the actual murderer had fled unpunished, and because of that, guilt made her believe she still deserved all those years of prison and remorse, “guilt was like a check on a table. Somebody had to pick it up” (Huneven 243). The author displayed Patsy’s power struggle by making it seem like she had never left prison in the first place, like she was still trapped behind the thick bars of guilt, the only difference being that now her bathroom had