The Great Alone

A bookish red-headed girl that wants her family to weather her father’s post-traumatic stress, Leni’s main impulse is to go along with her father’s schemes. Like Cora, she will make the most out of their move to Alaska. While she does this for her parents’ sake at first, particularly her mother Cora, Leni comes to appreciate Alaska and the hardiness it takes to live there. Leni accepts getting wounded while learning how to shoot because it’s a mark of her becoming Alaskan. She must conquer her initial fear of flying because Alaskans depend on planes for transportation. Alaska also gives Leni the opportunity to become part of a community as she toughens herself. Her friendship with Matthew will deepen into romance, against the wishes and warnings of those around her, including her father, showing her independence.

Fear defines most of Leni’s childhood: fear of her father’s instability as well as his violent actions towards her mother. With this fear comes a sense of shame that isolates Leni. While growing closer to Matthew, Leni feels she cannot speak of the worsening conditions at home because of the disloyalty this would mean against her father. Fear for Cora leads Leni to try to push her mother to leave twice, both times ending in tragedy: the first in Cora’s car accident and the second in her and Matthew’s fall.