Wellness

Jack’s wife Elizabeth is also shaped by her childhood. Because her family moved frequently, Elizabeth never had the opportunity to make friends, a circumstance that she resented. Her parents were primarily focused on accumulating wealth and honing their social status, making her adolescence lonely and isolating. Feeling deep shame and disdain for her family’s wealth and its legacy of garnering that wealth by unethical means, Elizabeth vowed to live a different life by moving to Chicago.

In college, Elizabeth tackled many majors, which foreshadows her later tendency to constantly try out new hobbies. She claims that settling on one interest will prove limiting, but soon, it becomes apparent that she is not entirely sure what she wants or who she wants to be. She is drawn to the bohemian lifestyle, consciously aware of its contrast to the life of luxury in which she grew up. When her college friends gradually shifted away from ongoing iconoclasm, she was initially critical, but understood the appeal of a more stable life once she and Jack had a child.

As a mother, Elizabeth is determined to excel. This drive for perfection is a trait she learned from her father, who highly valued external validation and demanded much of his daughter. She applies her knowledge of psychology to parenting, throwing herself into research on child rearing, but grows frustrated when her efforts to replicate famous experiments do not work on her son Toby. Elizabeth’s inability to be content impacts her domestic life and marriage; her constant need for reinvention makes Jack and Toby feel like they are not enough. Elizabeth seeks out change. She is eager for the new condominium because it seemingly offers the chance for a new lifestyle entirely; this hope of future contentment makes her tired of their current home. She grows tired of Jack as well, perceiving his needs as oppressive and the sameness of their relationship stagnant. She briefly is excited by Kate’s suggestion to join a sex club, but this too quickly proves to be a brief interest.

Elizabeth’s primary insecurity about her marriage turns out be guilt over manipulating Jack the same way her father used to manipulate the people in his life. Elizabeth replicated a love simulation experiment on Jack on their first date without his knowledge; now, she worries that their marriage is inauthentic and based on placebo feelings. As the novel unfolds, Elizabeth grows increasingly guilty about the work she does at Wellness, fearing that participating in its potentially unethical research is exactly the kind of fraud she despises her ancestors for engaging in.

Elizabeth garners important insight about herself from a conversation with her mentor Dr. Sanborne: She is always only focused on the future, assuming that life will be perfect at some other point in time. Dr. Sanborne consoles her by pointing out that humans are designed to change, to become many different versions of themselves throughout their lives. Elizabeth realizes that her drive to be perfect, but fall short, is due to her father’s need to be better than her. In the end, she accepts that she loves Jack and that there is no need to know scientifically whether they should be together.

Brandie brings her high level of corporate professionalism to her full-time parenting. Highly invested in her child’s school and their community, Brandie exudes confidence and control; Elizabeth is quick to recognize Brandie’s natural leadership of any group. Brandie is also outgoing and personable, sensing others’ needs and knowing how to engage with a variety of kinds of people. She even easily stops Toby’s meltdown, much to Elizabeth’s shock. Brandie’s active involvement in the children’s school, makes her privy to gossip that she passes this along to Elizabeth without shame; possessing this knowledge gives Brandie some of her power.

Brandie clings to a conservative, religion-based notion of morality. This makes her character a foil for the sex-positive Kate, who is liberal and anti-establishment, especially in her beliefs about marriage. Brandie is deeply hurt by her husband’s infidelity, blaming herself for his going outside of the marriage and certain that it is up to her to ensure that he does not commit infidelity in the future. The idea that she is responsible for his sexual behavior makes Brandie susceptible to the placebos sold by Wellness.

Brandie’s involvement in Community Corp initially appears admirable, as she claims the group’s purpose is helping better the lives of others. However, the group’s philosophy is a mixture of wishful thinking and pseudo-science that is clearly a parody of the real-life nonsensical but extremely popular manifestation ideas from The Secret (2006): Brandie and others insist that by avoiding any negative thoughts, they can prevent bad things from occurring. By extension, lobbying against what the group deems bad puts this philosophy into action. Brandie protests the sex club and the construction of the Shipworks building under the pretense of preventing immoral people from infiltrating her world and harming her children. Her objections, however, are rooted in bigotry and prejudice against low-income people and those on the LGBTQ+ spectrum. Brandie is quick to cut all ties with Elizabeth once she discovers that Elizabeth does not appear to share her moral views.