Fate

Instead of taking an active role in their lives, the characters in this novel seem to often depend on fate to determine the paths their lives will take. This dependence on fate also suggests the that characters believe they have no control over their lives but that it is all determined by some outside force. Maura and Nap both speak of their fate when they consider the way their lives have turned out and the direction they wish they lives would take. Other characters also speak of freak incidents that change the trajectory of a person’s life as if these incidents were controlled by fate.

Maura particularly seems to credit fate for the way her life has gone but perhaps that is because her life was changed so drastically the night of Leo and Diana’s deaths through no choice of Maura’s own. She...