A Spark of Light

George is the main antagonist of A Spark of Light. He is a foil for Hugh McElroy, highlighting the dark side of heroic fatherhood. He is a single father to a teenage daughter named Lil, and his self-worth revolves around protecting her and being seen as her hero. He served in the military and was serving in Bosnia when he intervened to save a young girl from a sexual assault and violently dealt with her attackers. She refused to testify, and he was court-martialed. The resulting post-traumatic stress disorder led his wife to abandon him and Lil. He found meaning afterward in his born-again Christian faith and fatherhood. He decides to attack the Center when he learns that Lil has hemorrhaged from an at-home abortion. He blames the Center for influencing Lil, believing that she could not have chosen an abortion on her own: “She was a good girl, because he had been a good father. If the first half of that statement wasn’t true, didn’t it negate the second half?” (255). Because his self-worth is so tied up in controlling Lil’s behavior, she does not feel comfortable coming to him when she is pregnant to ask for help.