Lack of Conviction

While Marie is a very talented and bright person, she personally lacks political convictions as she enters the intelligence community. This proves to be a crucially vulnerable Achilles heel for her, as she is repeatedly unable to act according to her own values, and is accordingly manipulated by the many people who surround her who more strongly hold their own convictions (both sinister and benevolent). The novel can be seen as a cautionary tale: despite Marie’s personal talents, she is routinely frustrated by her career in intelligence, and her first mission (involving Sankara) ends with her achieving none of the objectives of the mission, whether for her employer or herself personally. Marie only begins to find meaning in life when she becomes a mother to her twin sons -- but even this aspect of her life is under threat, such as in the...