What role do you think the woman Billie meets at the Garden of Eden plays in the story? As off-putting as she is, why do you think Billie is drawn to her?
Th.is is an interesting questions. Charlotte feels symbolic—almost like a distorted mirror of Billie’s own internal chaos. Billie may be drawn to her because she represents something raw and unfiltered, something Billie both fears and recognizes
Charlotte appears to provide Billie with a means to cope with her own thoughts. “What would Charlotte do, say or want”? The author invented this character to enter Billie’s mind when she needed to express or consider intense emotions and situations. Billie gave her inner voice the Charlotte persona at times, and at other times Billie squelched Charlotte. In this respect, Charlotte was a psychological tool.
I think Billie sees Charlotte as someone living life on their own terms. I think that is why Billie often draws upon wondering how Charlotte would deal with certain situations.
I think Billie saw her as someone else who was different (other than herself) and she was able to relate or be intrigued by her. I think she allowed Billie to accept herself.
She realizes this woman is different from others as Billie also is .
While I was thinking about this question it hit me that I could not recall Billie talking about Charlotte at the end of the book. I quickly perused the last few chapters and the last mention I could find of Charlotte was when Billie thinks, after telling Clayton that she won’t go to Colorado with him, she tells herself that she desperately needs something to quiet Charlotte, to find a way to gain the acceptance she craved. I’m definitely not a mental health expert, but I wonder if Charlotte was almost a dissociative personality that allowed Billie to express emotions that she wouldn’t allow herself to express.
I thought of Charlotte as an alter ego. Billie held her inside and didn’t “act” as a different person. Charlotte was an inner voice until Billie didn’t need her when she grew, married, and had a family.
I think Charlotte represents or is a composite of all the people out in the world that Billie had not yet encountered. She was totally different from her family and community members. Charlotte opens up a whole new way to see the world for Billie, telling her that people have always found her to be “too much.” At 8 years old, Billie has never heard a human being say “I love you.” (Can you imagine??) And she doesn’t understand what Charlotte means when she tells Billie, “They run from it like first, but it’s water.” But Billie says that she “wanted to know, I craved to know, I sensed that nothing was more important. Fire and water.” It was an awakening for Billie that she carried with her as she grew up, interacted with the people in her life, and strove to understand how the world works, her own worth, and where she belonged. Again, this was an example of some brilliantly clever and creative writing. A skillful technique to illustrate the journey Billie is embarking upon.