The Past

Throughout the novel, the author uses each of his primary characters’ struggles to confront the truth of their former lives in order to explore the ways in which the past might impact the individual’s present life. The author establishes this thematic notion at the start of Chapter 1, “Tracy Flick.” While consuming Me Too stories in the news, Tracy feels accosted by reminders of her teenage relationship with her “sophomore English teacher,” Mr. Dexter (4). Although years have passed since the incident, Tracy has “never talked to anyone about what happened” (5). She realizes that the Me Too stories make her story less unique than she thought. “In fact,” she says, “it had become pretty clear to me that . . . you got tricked into feeling more exceptional than you actually were . . . It gnawed at me that summer, the possibility that I’d misjudged my own past, that maybe...