Regret

The author uses regret to drive his characters’ actions, showing readers how powerful regret can be. Almost every character feels the heavy pressure of regret weighing them down, which leads to each individual going through life without experiencing happiness. This heavy feeling is what causes various characters to alter their life courses as well.

Faye is the best example of a character who feels no happiness, and, as a result, spends her life in a continuous change cycle hoping to find the one thing she cannot. Unfortunately for Faye, she has a hard time finding any complete satisfaction in the places she goes. In her youth, Faye regrets being so easily framed for an unplanned pregnancy in her youth. She then moves on in her misery to regret going to college. Just as she is comfortable in Chicago, she runs back to Iowa and marries Henry...