Birnam Wood

Mira Bunting is the 29-year-old founder of Birnam Wood. She’s a natural leader: charismatic, intelligent, and passionate. Eleanor Catton describes her as self-mythologizing and in need of a villain. Mira is an anti-hero because the shadow side of her outsized personality is that she’s a liar, hubristic, and willing to excuse her own bad behavior if it benefits her cause. She steals equipment, borrows money without intending to pay, and commits frequent, small dishonesties like pretending not to see the honesty box for her campsite. When she’s presented with Lemoine’s money, she has no problems lying to her group to ensure their support. Mira’s characterization is the foundation for the theme of Compromising Morality in Service to a Cause.

What makes Mira different to a character like Shelley, however, is Mira’s guilt if she’s in danger of being caught, if she’s being untrue to herself, or hurting certain people. Then she becomes “stricken, desperate, even self-destructive” (318). There are a few moments late in the book during which she can’t imagine anyone more monstrous than herself, but she feels these moments briefly. Lemoine notes her childlike ability to shift quickly away from unpleasant thoughts about herself, a habit which causes her to ignore unpleasant realities and give in to her ambitions, such as when she ignores the red flags about Lemoine and takes his money.