Dorothy

Dorothy, whose last name is never included in the text, is the novel’s central character. Her age is never identified, but a number of circumstances suggest she is in her late twenties or early thirties. Those circumstances include the fact that when her experience of being pregnant is discussed, there are no references to it being at all risky, which might reasonably appear if she was at an older age where pregnancy might become more difficult. Perhaps more importantly, Dorothy’s relatively comfortable relationship with technology like cell phones and computers suggests that she is more likely to be younger than older. Finally, the descriptions of Dorothy’s academic and professional career, along with the representations of her various degrees of socio-cultural awareness, suggest that she has emerged from graduate school perhaps between five or ten years before the events of the narrative.

All that said, and...