A Little Narcissistic
Ashley is a little narcissistic. And, of course, that is being generously understatement. She is very self-involved and like most narcissists tends to see things that are really only minor consequence as large-scale assaults against her. Could be worse, of course: she could become President one day. Except she is smart enough to know her limitations which means she is most narcissistic about her appearance:
“My eyes are set perfectly apart; Lauren’s are set just a tad too close together. Mine are a piercing blue; her are mud-brown. My lips are natural plump; hers are thin.”
A Character in Everybody’s Story
Ashley’s narcissism is clearly tied to how she is viewed by others and this is significant for a recurring referential theme that acts as imagery. Some people view others as being like supporting characters in a movie of their own life, but Ashley’s narcissism is a little more unusual: those who see themselves as important characters in stories about other people. Ashley is constant referencing movies in relation to her own life, but often in a subtly different ways than most people do:
“I’m a good screamer; it’s so piercing that my friends tell me I could star in a horror movie.”
“That was when my movie went a little off-script. Because instead of picking up on my air of mystery, Claudia said, `We were just talking about Ms. Perrault and Mr. Hollinger.”
“I had that movie-star feeling, knowing that many eyes were upon us.”
“If my life was a movie…we’d do a reshoot, and the movie would be much more uplifting.”
Molecules
The title of the book derives from Stewart means of clinging to the memories of his dead mother. Ashley jumps to a conclusion about what early teen boys do when covering themselves with a blanket, but Stewart disavows her of this notion by explaining he was actually breathing in the molecules of his mother. This requires further explanation of course:
“When someone dies, their molecules break down into smaller molecules as well as individual atoms…When that person dies, that atom could become part of a molecule in something else, like a blooming flower, or even another human being. Or an oxygen atom in your sandwich could end up in a molecule as part of your brain.”
Schrodinger’s Cat
Stewart actually has a cat named Schrodinger. Of course, thanks to The Big Bang Theory, Schrodinger’s thought experiment made the leap from the very limited demographic of nerd culture into the big wide world of pop culture. Tens of millions of readers won’t even need to be told how the experiment posits the cat as crossing the parameters of paradox by being both alive and dead at the very same time. The cat does go missing and so literally lives out the experiment of possibly being alive or possibly being dead simultaneously, but the imagery of Schrodinger’s experiment is really directed toward the status of Stewart’s mother who is simultaneously in both a dead and living state thanks to Stewart’s devotion to the principles of molecular regeneration.
