Anxious People

The title of the novel refers to the dominant theme, which is the anxiety that every character feels. Each character initially feels alone in their anxiety, and this feeling of isolation leads them to do extraordinary things based on bad ideas. The narrator continually refers to the main characters as “idiots,” but the narrator uses this term endearingly to describe people who don’t have plans but instead are doing “[their] best to get through the day” (2). This suggests that when anxious people feel desperate, like they can’t make it through another day, this is when bad things happen. Nevertheless, these bad things can serendipitously transform into good things when people connect.

The narrator describes the bank robber as an “idiot” who felt trapped and followed a bad idea in her desperation. The novel builds sympathy for the bank robber’s situation by explaining the depths of her desperation, which stems from love and fear. She so deeply loved her daughters that she couldn’t bear losing them. This led her to believe that she could somehow rob a bank, pay her rent, and then one day pay the bank back. The narrator also softens the robber’s actions by drawing an implicit parallel between the bank robber and her hostages.