57 pages • 1 hour read
Notes on an Execution
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Character Analysis
Ansel Packer
Ansel is the novel’s antagonist, on death row for murdering four women. Though Ansel abhors being called a serial killer, he fulfills several common tropes associated with the title. As a child, he appears emotionless and kills small animals for fun. He is diagnosed as a psychopath, who puts on a charming façade for the purpose of manipulation. He fancies himself intelligent and is working on a long-winded manifesto about the truth of good and evil, hoping to secure a place in public memory like other murderers before him.
As the narrative progresses, the full story of Ansel’s life unfolds. He was abused as a child and spent his adolescence living alone with no familial connections and no support system. Ansel is obsessed with the idea of alternate universes in which his life might have turned out differently. Kukafka explores this theory through the much more well-adjusted Ellis, who has a similar genetic makeup and early childhood to Ansel but enjoys a loving and stable life after being adopted.
Notes on an Execution puts forth the idea that the label of “psychopath” is used too readily to dehumanize people like Ansel. Ansel knows that he is different from others. He cannot feel or receive the love he desires, whether because of his neurochemical makeup or his circumstances. He leads a tormented and lonely life, punctuated by violent crimes committed in a twisted attempt to feel a sense of normalcy. He is cast out by people and institutions that recognize his difference but don’t know how to help him.
Ansel is a complex and nuanced character but not a sympathetic one. Kukafka makes it clear that he is a human who has suffered greatly while condemning his choices. Crucially, Ansel’s suffering is not unique. All the novel’s central female characters have survived trauma. The women cope through work, therapy, and relationships while Ansel copes by taking the lives of innocent girls. Regardless of his motivations or his potential to be better, Ansel’s actions are all that matter to the families and friends of his victims.
In the novel’s final chapters, Ansel is put to death via lethal injection. He dies in pain and afraid, and his execution brings no closure to the people he has hurt. His death leaves questions about the ethicality of the death penalty and the meaning of justice in murder cases.
Lavender
Lavender is Ansel’s mother. At 16, she is seduced by the older Johnny Packer and subsequently imprisoned on his farm. Lavender is an attentive mother but struggles to bond with a young Ansel, recognizing a coldness in him. When Johnny’s abuse escalates to involve the children, Lavender leaves. She does it to save them, but the act is interpreted by Ansel as betrayal and forms the core of his belief that women “always…leave you alone” (155).
After her escape, Lavender moves to California and spends years drifting through her life. She struggles to process her guilt over leaving her children behind and define what motherhood means in the absence of a relationship with them.
Lavender finds respite at the Gentle Valley commune, where she forms strong bonds with other trauma survivors. Her story illustrates the healing power of true connection and love, raising the question of whether Ansel’s outcome was in part due to these essential human needs going unfulfilled.
Saffron “Saffy” Singh
Saffy is Ansel’s childhood friend and the victim of his first intentional act of cruelty against another person. Saffy is sent to Miss Gemma’s after her mother dies, where she has a traumatic encounter with Ansel.
In the narrative present, Saffy works as a detective for the NYPD. As an Indian American woman, she deals directly with the fallout of a culture where white men hold much of the power, seeing its effects both in the workplace and in the cases she investigates. Saffy spends decades relentlessly trailing Ansel, correctly suspecting him of the 1990 murders. She struggles to separate her suspicions from the trauma of their initial encounter. As she stalks Ansel, Saffy reckons with the question of whether her obsession is a form of love. She understands that some women are inexorably drawn to brutal men but sees the worst outcomes of this attraction play out in the cases she investigates.
When Saffy sees Ansel at the Blue House, her jealousy at his happiness drives her to tell Blue and Rachel about Ansel’s suspected crimes. Ansel is kicked out of the Blue House, whereupon he drives to Texas and kills Jenny. Saffy struggles with her culpability in Ansel’s final murder.
After Ansel’s arrest, Saffy confronts him, only to discover that he is nothing like the man she’s built up in her head. The illusion of his genius is shattered. Saffy herself is several times more interesting and intelligent than Ansel. Her reckoning with Ansel’s ordinariness plays into one of the novel’s key themes, Deconstructing the Serial Killer.
Hazel Fisk
Hazel is Jenny’s twin and Ansel’s sister-in-law. Considered the less pretty and interesting twin, Hazel spends much of her youth comparing herself to Jenny. She is attracted to Ansel on first meeting him but later realizes that he is an abusive husband. When Jenny’s marriage falls apart, Hazel helps her move to Texas. After Jenny’s murder, she unearths Ansel’s trinket box and takes it to Saffy.
Hazel is one of the most vocal critics of the way the media covers Ansel’s case. Jenny’s murder is dismissed by the press as not interesting enough. Hazel believes that Ansel is the one not worth remembering. She is also unhappy with the death penalty, knowing that it only brings more attention to Ansel and grants him martyr status. Rather than dwelling on Ansel’s life and death, Hazel honors her sister and the other women killed while campaigning for prison reform.
Jenny Fisk
Jenny is Ansel’s ex-wife. A bright and beautiful woman, she is drawn to Ansel despite recognizing his inability to feel normal emotions. After their marriage, the relationship becomes abusive. Though Jenny has an inkling about Ansel’s crimes, she suppresses her suspicions. Jenny finds a job as a labor and delivery nurse in Texas and leaves an incensed Ansel behind. After being spurned from the Blue House, Ansel drives to Texas and murders Jenny.
Ansel sees Jenny as a tool to remake himself into a normal, happy human being. Through Hazel’s recollections, readers see the whole of Jenny as she was: a vivacious and intelligent woman, who would have done good for the world. Kukafka focuses the attention often given to men like Ansel on his victims instead, highlighting the beauty of the lives Ansel cut short.
Blue Harrison
Beatrice “Blue” Harrison is Ansel’s niece. Ansel meets her at the Blue House after tracking down the whereabouts of Baby Packer. Blue trusts Ansel instantly, and they bond over stories of their families. With Blue, Ansel feels “what [he is] capable of becoming” (246). He has no violent urges toward her.
After Ansel is sentenced to death, Blue agrees to be his witness, feeling empathy for the good man she knew at the Blue House. Her relationship with Ansel proves that goodness can exist even in people who have done horrible things and underscores the fact that Ansel is a human being despite his crimes.
Johnny Packer
Johnny is Ansel’s father. He is older than Lavender by an undisclosed amount, and after Ansel’s birth, he begins abusing mother and child. Johnny’s abuse is one of the factors that influences Ansel’s adult life. Johnny’s sense of sexual entitlement to Lavender is a symptom of the patriarchal society that also shapes his son.
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