Paradise

Consolata was a nine-year-old orphan on the streets of Brazil when Mary Magna/Mother Superior took her. When we meet her as an older woman, she has “two Hiawatha braids,” and her once green eyes are very pale. She has a deep connection with Mother Superior, whom she loves as her mother. When Mother Superior dies, Connie goes into a depression, sleeping in the cellar, drinking constantly, and wishing for death. Yet, as Mother dies, Connie is unknowingly transitioning into the role of a mother also. While Connie never explicitly seeks out women to join the Convent, each of the women seems to be brought by a kind of gravity. It is as though Connie’s healing energy, encapsulated in the Convent as a haven, draws them in. In her chapter, she takes on a new role as a guide for the women when she teaches them about “loud dreaming.” She serves as a mother, but uniquely, the fact of her motherhood does not require the biological input of a man, much like nuns. Rather than being authorized by the Catholic Church as a nun, like Mother Superior, Connie fulfills a parallel role in her own undefined spiritual practices.

Sight and eyes are central to Connie’s character. At the very moment when Connie decides she is done with Deek, her green eye color begins to fade, and her eyesight shifts to being the best at night. Once Connie can see differently, she abandons men and cares only for the homosocial realm of unbridled womanhood at the Convent. She demonstrates the transformation possible when women choose to take authority over their own lives rather than surrendering to the whims of the very selfish men in the narrative world of Paradise. This correlates to her mystical sight and her ability to “see in” or “step in,” her spiritual gift that brought Scout back to life and kept Mother Superior alive for so long. Both literally and figuratively, Connie sees life in a new way, with a spiritual insight that prioritizes healing and independence. 

Mavis Albright is the first woman without a home to show up at the Convent. She came from the East Coast, where she lived with her abusive husband, Frank, and her children. When she accidentally leaves her twin babies, Merle and Pearl, to suffocate in a hot car, she resolves to run away. On a long drive, she eventually ends up at the Convent, where she stays. There is a warrant out for Mavis’s arrest, so she cannot return home openly; however, she drives out to secretly visit her surviving children at school, watching from afar.

Throughout the story, Mavis develops from a timid, fearful, paranoid woman to a person confident enough to throw punches and cook a good meal. The narrative also uses Mavis’s character to unsettle the idea of truth. She claims to have been in the Higgledy Piggledy for just a short time, yet it is somehow long enough for her babies to die. She suspects her nine-year-old daughter of plotting to murder her, while her mother finds the idea absurd. When she lives at the Convent, she deludes herself into believing that her babies are still alive (258). She perceives them growing, hears their laughter in the mansion, and buys them gifts. The narrative confirms that this is a delusion: “Connie never questioned the reality of the twins and for Mavis, who had no intention of explaining or defending what she knew to be true” (259). However, Morrison repeatedly unsettles this fact. The narrative introduces a few babies with very short stays at the Convent—Arnette’s baby, who lived just a few days; Pallas’s baby, who is sleeping when the attack takes place; and Mavis’s hallucinated babies. Morrison does not explicitly clarify the timeline of when the babies are there and for how long. Thus, doubt is cast about the babies when Sweetie wanders to the Convent and hears a baby crying. Later, during the meeting at the Oven, the baby is described as multiple babies: “Well, you know Sweetie. Anyway said she heard noises coming from somewhere in that house. Sounded to her like little babies crying. What in God’s name little babies doing out there?” (275). Either the narrator is unreliable, Sweetie has misremembered, or the townspeople have inflated Sweetie’s account. Mavis’s character is a window into Paradise’s thematic meditation on truth and perception. 

Before Ruby, Gigi was waiting to meet her ex-boyfriend Mikey in Wish, Arizona, once he got out of prison. She finds out that both his name and Wish are fake, as well as the rock formation he told her about that was supposedly in the shape of a couple having sex. Unsure where to go, she rides the train, where she meets a man who suggests that she go to Ruby. There, he says, are two trees that look like lovers embracing. Gigi is characterized as particularly sexual. When Mavis meets her, she is sunbathing naked. She doesn’t hesitate to be involved casually with K.D., though she does not return his deeper affections. She invites Seneca to bathe with her, unsuccessfully. It is no coincidence that her story involves the two iconic images of the lewd rock formation and the tree lovers.

Though Gigi ends up at the Convent, she arrives at Ruby first. When she arrives on a bus, she disrupts the perceived purity of the town. First, it is highly unusual for buses to stop in Ruby; her arrival by this mode indicates an infiltration of the outside world. Second, the men are distracted by her “screaming tits” and skimpy clothing. K.D. sneaks around with her for two years behind Arnette’s back. This relationship poses a serious threat to the legacy of the Morgan men, and his uncles, Deacon and Steward Morgan, are very disapproving of this. Comfortable with showing her body and sexually free, Gigi is the embodiment of the impure, outside influence that Ruby fears.

Seneca is among the women who come to live at the Convent. She grows up in foster homes after being abandoned by Jean, a woman who she believes is her sister but is her mother. When her abusive boyfriend ends up in prison, she follows his instructions to ask his mother to help him. When his mother refuses, Seneca decides to run away. While wandering in Wichita, she meets a mysterious wealthy woman who offers her a job. For several weeks, she is a sexual “pet,” living extravagantly but degraded. When the woman’s husband returns, Seneca is let go, paid, and given some nice clothes. She hitchhikes primarily on the backs of trucks until she sees Sweetie walking one day. Intrigued, she follows her to the Convent.

Morrison typically chooses names for her characters with some significance or purpose. Seneca’s name recalls the Roman Stoic philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger. Seneca the Younger is known for his calm and resolute suicide when accused of conspiracy. Likewise, Seneca’s character struggles with self-harm. Seneca is also a “peacemaker,” which we see when she interacts with Mavis and Gigi, who don’t like each other.

Pallas is the daughter of an L.A. lawyer who provides her with wealth but hardly spends time with her. She is just sixteen years old when she runs off to New Mexico with artist and high school janitor Carlos. When they go to live with her mother, Dee Dee Truelove, Carlos and Dee Dee start an affair of their own. Horrified, Pallas runs away again and finds herself hiding in a lake from a group of boys who have assaulted her. Wet and ragged, she eventually hitches a ride to the clinic, where she meets Billie Delia. Billie helps her get to the Convent, as the clinic is already closing. At the Convent, she later discovers she is pregnant.

Pallas is another character for whom naming is important. According to Greek mythology, “it was common to use Pallas as a synonym for Athena” (Brouwers, Josho. “Who’s Pallas? Or: Greek mythology is a mess.” Ancient World Magazine. 9 April 2019). Athena is a goddess of wisdom and war. We see this mirrored in Pallas, who transforms from a quiet and weak girl to a strong mother at the end of the novel, carrying a sword. 

Steward and Deacon “Deek” Morgan are twin brothers and founding fathers of the town of Ruby. They are also the owners of the town bank. Steward and Deek are the brothers of Ruby, the woman after whom the town is named. The Morgans are one of the prominent families in the town and in the history of Haven as well. Thus, it is telling that the brothers’ names both evoke positions that entail responsibility, authority, and management. Steward is married to Dovey. Though he has acquired much, he faces many difficult losses as well. The greatest loss is the inability of him and his wife to have children. Deek is married to Soane Morgan. While they do have children—Easter and Scout—they must bear their loss when the two sons die in the Vietnam War.

While Steward and Deek lived most of their lives in agreement with each other, they develop in ways that ultimately pull them apart. Steward is more obviously committed to the structures and legacies of Ruby and Haven. When he learns that his brother is having an affair with Connie, he disapproves, though they don’t discuss it explicitly. When Steward passes Connie on the road and gives her a ride back to the Convent (rather than into town where she was headed), his gesture is subtle but intimidating. With no other heirs to the Morgan legacy, they must look to their irresponsible and promiscuous nephew K.D. However, it is Steward who takes K.D.’s irresponsibility—everyone’s irresponsibility—most seriously. He joins the men on the raid to the Convent to put an end to it, wanting to get rid of Gigi, the girl who K.D. had been messing with, and Connie, the woman who had threatened his brother’s marriage. Ultimately, Steward shows himself to be stronger and more callous than his brother; while Deek hesitates when he sees Connie at the Convent during the raid, Steward shoots her in the head.

From this moment forward, Deek is different: “It was Deacon Morgan who had changed the most. It was as though he had looked in his brother’s face and did not like himself anymore” (300). He walks shirtless and barefoot, and he develops a friendship with Reverend Misner. When he speaks to Misner, he seems to repent for his actions, though not explicitly. Where Steward is unwavering in his conviction, Deek has finally surrendered the Morgan family burden. He reflects on his grandfather, Zechariah “Coffee” Morgan, and his twin brother, Tea Morgan. Deek says of Zechariah, “He saw something that shamed him. The way his brother thought about things; the choices he made when up against it” (303). Deek identifies with his grandfather, only this time it entails him releasing the old ways.