Character Analysis

Mireille
Mireille Duval Jameson -- commonly referred to as "Miri" -- is an American-born child of Haitian immigrants, Sebastian and Fabienne. Miri learns to love and to respect the native land, that her parents called home, until the day she is kidnapped right outside the gates of her family's wealthy estate in Port-au-Prince. After being held hostage by captors for thirteen days and experiencing physical and mental trauma from which she never recovers, Miri refuses to accept Haiti as her home from that moment onward. During the thirteen days in captivity, Miri experiences hope and fear--and everything in between--as she endures acts of abuse, starvation, and sexual assault. Miri spends many months trying to become whole by remembering her past life with her husband, Michael, and her son, Christophe. She attempts to remember what it feels like to be happy while she struggles to stay alive. However, as the days go by, Miri realizes that her chances of survival are slim. As a coping mechanism, Miri refers to herself as "no one" in hope to forget about her previous life that she enjoyed, which ultimately reflects upon the person she becomes after her release. Once Miri is freed she continues to feel as though she remains in captivity, “I was free even if I did not know it yet or my body was free and my mind was in the cage”(196). Despite her physical freedom, Miri's experiences result in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from which she can never fully escape.

Michael
Born and raised by his parents Lorraine and Glen on a farm in Nebraska, Michael is the strong-willed and strong-armed man who chose Miri as his wife. Passive aggressively nicknamed “Mr. America” by Mireille's parents, he is entirely devoted to his life with Miri and loves her fiercely. Possibly the most tortured of the family members left waiting for Miri’s return, he grows furious at Sebastian’s stubbornness and inflated sense of pride. An outsider in a country he does not understand, he is offered little respect by the family during the course of the negotiations, repeatedly being told to leave it to the professionals and that he is wasting his time and energy. Fed up with Miri’s family and their complacence, Michael circumvents Sebastians decisions and allies himself with Victor, a cousin of Mireille, to search for her himself. They come infuriatingly close when they stop to talk to TiPierre, who is an acquaintance of Victor, but are steered off track by his lies. Michael is furious with himself for not being able to protect his wife and blames himself for her kidnapping, wondering what he could have done to prevent it, and cursing Haiti for bringing such misery to his family. After Miri is returned Michael begins the second phase this testing ordeal, now having to find a way to try to bring Miri back to her old self, despite her reluctance to accept anyones assistance. He is just as tortured by her new, broken spirit as he was when she was missing, if not more so since he is there with his wife, but completely unable to reach her. Confused and scared, Michael tries everything to ease Miri’s pain but does not know how. Eventually, over time, the leash around Mireille's neck loosens, if only enough for them to rebuild some semblance of their life.

Sebastien
Sebastien Duval is Mireille’s father and Fabienne’s husband. As an immigrant to the United States, Sebastien faces inequality throughout his life, commonly referring to himself as a “slave” in the United States. His determination to reach the top stemmed from his promise to Fabienne and his drive to construct “towers [that] were going to soar in the sky” (Gay 17). He reshapes the idea of being an immigrant. He has the work ethic, but he diverges from the concept that many immigrants solely go to the United States to provide for family back in the homeland rather than to forge enough wealth to become a part of the Upper Class back in the motherland. He becomes a leader in a large construction company, only beginning his journey to greater success once he goes back home to Haiti. Sebastien seems as though he takes on the role of the antagonist; however, his motives are ones of self-preservation and protection for his entire family. When Mireille gets kidnapped by the Commander and his men, a ransom of one million dollars is asked of Sebastien. As a man who works tirelessly from the start of his career to establish a name for himself, he is not keen to the idea of giving that success away to men without honor. Sebastien’s internal fight between paying the ransom and protecting Miri or protecting his assets drives his conscience throughout the novel. His ability to shut off his emotions and disconnect himself in order to make “better” decisions gets the best of him. His pride destroys any trust between him and his daughter and that plagues him for the rest of his life.

Lorraine
Lorraine is a very important character in An Untamed State by Roxane Gay. She is married Glen, and they both live on a farm in Nebraska. Their son, Michael, eventually marries Mireille, the protagonist. Lorraine, who is a strong-willed and stubborn woman, has a hard time accepting Mireille. She repeatedly reminds Miri that she was simply a temporary girlfriend, and tries her best to scare off Mireille. In the end, Mireille sticks around and marries Michael. When Lorraine is diagnosed with cancer and struggling in the hospital, Mireille stays right by her side, helping her with her daily tasks, such as eating, bathing, and sleeping because Michael is unable to do so. Due to Lorraine's headstrong attitude, she did little to verbally recognize Mireille's devotion in helping her survive, although she knows Miri stood by her side out of the goodness in her heart. The most Lorraine says to thank Mireille after standing by her for an extended amount of time is, "Thank you for getting on my nerves for so long" (129). Though, Lorraine is not a rude woman, but she simply has a hard time expressing her emotions. Deep down, she cares greatly for Mireille, and she shows that by repaying Miri when she needs help the most. She opens her home and her heart to a broken-spirited Mireille for six months in hopes of repairing her physical and emotional wounds. Without Lorraine caring for Miri day in and day out, Miri would not have been able to recover from her nightmare. Roxane Gay uses Lorraine as a figure whose personality alters throughout the story. Immediately, readers see Lorraine as a standoffish character, but later, after she shows her true colors when helping Miri, characters begin to appreciate and respect Lorraine.

The Commander
Laurent Charles, the man who calls himself “The Commander” is a bitter and violent young man who grew up experiencing some of the worst Haiti had to offer. The son of a servant, he was often reminded of what the rich kept to themselves, and how little the rest of them had. He is characterized by the large, ugly scar on his cheek and his sadistic and cruel personality. He is the man responsible for Mireille's kidnapping and is undoubtedly the main antagonist in the novel. He takes to handcuffing Miri to his bed when she would not surrender willingly and is also fond of cutting her back with his knives and burning her with cigarette butts. Seemingly unable to feel compassion or empathy, The Commander plays devastating mind games with Mireille that lead to her serious dissociative personality disorder and severe PTSD. He is a villain in the most classic sense, spurned on by petty hate for those who have done better than himself, “Look how these people live,” his father would tell him, “Never forget what they choose to deny you” (191). When Miri tells him that her father, too, grew up poor and lowly and through hard work and ambition escaped his fate The Commander is angered, unable to accept that there is any path but the one he chose. He is a confused and violently angry man with no real focus to his rage, but the things that he does leave no room for pity.

TiPierre
The second main antagonist in An Untamed State, TiPierre, comes from a similar background as The Commander, though he is arguably worse off. Sold by his mother into servitude at a young age for twenty-five dollars, TiPierre spent his early life under the command of a cruel master. Receiving lashes every night despite how well he performed, and being forced to work nonstop, TiPierre forgot what a free life was, even eventually forgetting his own name. At sixteen, he was able to escape to the slums of Haiti where he found himself working for The Commander. TiPierre is an interesting character who seems, at an artificial level, to be capable of compassion and empathy which is rare in the circle of men Miri has to deal with during her captivity. He gave his share of the ransom to the other men in order to keep them away from her, which at the time seems like a generous act, but in reality is a selfish ploy to win Miri for himself. He is a rapist, same as The Commander, but is gentler and seems to not want Mireille to suffer more than she has to, but none the less forces himself on her time and time again. Miri does not hate TiPierre the same way she does the commander, even saying “I pitied him, how carelessly he had been loved, how easily he had been discarded, how little he knew of love…” (149). Near the end of Miri’s captivity, TiPierre seems to suffer the most retaliation, having his cheek ripped open by Mireille with her teeth, and eventually being beaten to near death by Michael. A sad character who is lost in a cruel world, he is evil because there is no other choice.

(Source: Gay, Roxane. An Untamed State. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.)