Then She Was Gone

In characterizing Noelle and Floyd, Jewell explains background information about their childhoods to show the reader the way upbringing contributes to one’s personality and mental state as an adult. In part, learning about Noelle and Floyd’s childhoods helps make them more understandable and realistic characters. Rather than simply labeling them as the villains of the story, the reader sees them as people with a history that shaped them into the mentally unstable adults encountered in the novel.  

First, Noelle explains her family and upbringing from a first-person perspective. Growing up in Ireland, Noelle was the middle child with two older and two younger brothers. Her only sister, Michaela, died at age eight, and Noelle describes the way her parents constantly compared her to Michaela. Her parents slept in separate bedrooms and had high expectations for her academically. She sums up her childhood saying, “Anyway, that was me. The less bonny, less clever, less dead sister with the four horrible brothers and the mum and dad who judged more than they loved” (166). Noelle never formed meaningful relationships in her life and struggled to find a job that was a good fit for her. After reading Floyd’s book and meeting him in London, she quickly became obsessed with him and with winning his attention. Over time, she became desperate to keep her relationship with Floyd, and her resentment over her less-than-perfect life grew when she encountered Ellie’s golden personality. The reader sees how her strange personality and disturbed mental state developed in degrees over time because of her upbringing. The lack of love in her childhood shaped her identity and emotional state.

Floyd’s upbringing and family life was also imperfect. His parents were extremely young and poor when he was born, and they left him in front of a hospital. They spent a year fighting to get him back, but when he misbehaved as a child, they would say, “We should have left you there in the hospital” (106). His family travelled around the word during his growing up years, so he never stayed somewhere long enough to form meaningful relationships. Floyd also had a hard time making friends as a young person because of his personality. Floyd explains the lack of normal relationships in his life, saying, “As it is, I don’t think I ever really loved anyone, until Poppy came along. And even now I’m not sure if that’s quite the right word. After all, I have nothing to compare it to” (334). Similar to Noelle, Floyd’s unconventional upbringing and lack of love from family and friends damaged his psyche to some extent. Information about his childhood explains to the reader why Floyd struggles to tell Laurel the truth and eventually dies by suicide. Jewell’s decision to create a family history for each of the novel’s disturbed characters shows the way one’s upbringing shapes one’s character and identity.