Unlabeled

While Jonathan Franzen's novel Freedom may be rather lengthy, I believe it's most valuable strength is that it changes perspectives.  It elaborates on the world from multiple characters' points of view, perhaps in a way comparable to Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad.  By switching points of view every fifty pages or so, Franzen is able to establish ambiguity about who each character actually is, especially in regards to Patty.

The novel starts with Patty, making her seem like a main character, perhaps even the one protagonist.  Yet while Patty does define herself and her life, Walter, Richard, and, Joey all end up defining her in a slightly different way, reflecting their understanding or misunderstanding of her.  Perhaps part of the problem is that Patty does not really understand herself.  She is in love with two men but cannot communicate this very well to either of them; she has college basketball friends that we never hear about or meet; she simultaneously cares but doesn't care about her family.  Even after Patty's autobiography, the reader really doesn't know how to characterize her. We know she is competitive, we know she is a housewife, we know she is an ex-athlete.  But other than that we really don't have any other adjectives to describe Patty's actual personality.  In other novels this may not have been a problem, since there are oftentimes significant actions of characters that then define them.  But even if you look at her reaction to rape, Patty does not really fit any labels.  She was almost more upset about her family's reaction to her rape than the rape itself.  Notice that Patty was resigned to inaction on her family's part before talking to her Coach--she cried in the shower to avoid talking to her sisters; she didn't tell her parents; her coach made the call home.  She wants to not let the team down, and therefore connects that to pressing charges.  She was angry, and because "HE RAPED ME LIKE IT WAS NOTHING," (45) but she doesn't characterize the emo silent self- focused grieving teenager rape victim (Kristen Stewart, Speak) at all.  So while her team spirit points to loyalty, her view of the actual rape is all about self-worth.  Her actions are unreadable--no one conclusion can be drawn about her personality--she is difficult to judge.  Does this lack of labels give Patty freedom?  Or in the long run make her more restricted because others (and perhaps she herself) cannot understand her?

In general, therefore, I don't think it is really fair to judge Patty as a character, since she cannot even figure out herself.  When the rest of the characters desperately try to figure her out, and then blame her when they fail to do so, something is wrong. While Patty may be in a perpetual state of mid-life crisis, whether she's freaking out about her neighbors or addicted to exercise or funding her obnoxious son's drinking habit, the way other characters view these actions just creates even more ambiguity.  So when Richard is thinking about how much he relates to her, and Walter is freaking about her sanity, and Joey is horribly outraged at her parenting skills, I think it is worthy to revisit the first reading and see how Patty does not define herself, but instead paints a complicated abstract art piece. If they don't understand her, it may not be Patty's fault, but it may be instead because she does not understand herself.